There is no try
by CycoMW
Summary: Harry Potter gets interested in Star Wars and after a small piece of accidental magic starts to believe he is force sensitive and his magic powers develop accordingly. Deviates from canon quickly and without apology. Multi-year story. First year is posted. Second year, and Luna's first appearance, will follow when it's finished. Currently only Star Wars fiction influenced.
1. Chapter 1

_Author Notes: This being FanFiction I'm borrowing a ideas that I've seen elsewhere and interpreting and adding to them as I go. I do try to be as original as possible beyond the initial concept. Currently it's just a Harry Potter that's heavily influenced by the Star Wars genre and not a full crossover. That may eventually change though I'm not as familiar with the Star Wars canon. This story has and is going to have fairly significant time skips and a lot of the events in canon are either skipped or summarized in a just few words. There's little or no bashing, in fact many of the typical targets are regulated to extremely minor bit parts. There's also not a whole lot of dialog, at least in first year. If you prefer lots of dialog and a slower pace, My Friend Tom, my other story might be more to your taste._

_I write for fun. Unfortunately I don't proofread for fun. I do go through everything at least once after writing it but know from past experience that I will still miss some things. If anyone is willing or wants to help fix some of my many blunders please let me know. I have a large bucket of comma's left over that I'm sure belong in there somewhere._

_This was a bit of an epic writing session for me. First draft, 22K words in three days along with finishing off chapter 23 of My Friend Tom. Of course it'll take longer to post as I am a slow proofreader and, as I write this, the majority of the story has not even been gone through once. There are eight chapters for 1st year. I have a good idea of where I am going with 2nd year but there will be a hiatus whilst my attention wanders before I get started on that._

* * *

**Chapter 1**

* * *

**- There is no try -**

Harry was seven and a half when he first got his first proper taste of Star Wars. He'd seen glimpses of the movies playing on the television but had never been allowed to sit down and watch them. In fact since he was five he hadn't been allowed to watch TV since the day Dudley had thrown a tantrum about what to watch and the television had continued to show the program Harry had wanted to watch no matter what channel it was changed to. He'd also seen some Star Wars books in the library but they hadn't caught his attention and most of them were in the section aimed at the older students.

It was Christmas evening and Harry found himself sitting in his cupboard struggling to read the novelisation of Star Wars that Dudley had discarded in favour of his many other toys. Once again Harry hadn't received anything, he had not been surprised and now he was pretending to himself that this was a gift given to him. That was the main reason he was trying to read it. Generally he didn't bother with homework or studying, most of it was easy but getting good marks was only asking for trouble. It was better to lag behind and have to struggle to catch up. Angry and irritated teachers didn't withhold meals.

Despite himself he quickly got interested and even went to the trouble of consulting his school dictionary for some of the words. Like all his school textbooks it was an older second hand version rather than the one recommended by the school, but it sufficed.

Things changed a few weeks after his third rereading of the whole trilogy. He was no longer having to look up any of the words in any of the books, either the one he had at home or the two that he had read in school library. Laying curled up on the ratty mattress he was looking up at the underside of the stairs. As always the cupboard was dimly lit by the light coming in through the vent in and cracks around the cupboard door. It was the same light he usually read by as he wasn't allowed to turn on the cupboard light and waste electricity. That was just one of the many things Harry didn't understand since his uncle and aunty never bothered to turn off the hallway or kitchen lights in case Vernon or Dudley wanted a late night snack.

He was whispering words to himself and making whooshing sounds as he waved his hand around imagining that Darth Vader was walking down the underside of the stairs towards him and he was actually standing on the bottom step.

"No Vadar. I will not let you take me to the emperor. I have been trained by Yoda and have powers you don't know."

He made a few more waves of his imaginary lightsabre.

"Ha. Your force grip doesn't work on me. Mine is stronger."

Harry spotted a spider walking along the side of the cupboard.

"You would send your monsters at me? I will defeat them as well!"

He glared at the minion of Darth Vader and turned his right hand into a clenched claw imagining himself squeezing the spider.

He was utterly shocked when he felt a warmth in his chest and the spider was crushed by an invisible force. His first thought was horror at what he had done, the spiders had never hurt him and he had just killed it. He had seen both Vernon and Dudley kill plenty of spiders, Vernon with brutal efficiency, Dudley with gleeful malevolence, so the death wasn't shocking. But the fact that he was responsible for it this time was. He had always felt sorry for them. He didn't want to be like his cousin or uncle.

As he carefully collected its remains with a rough envelope made from a scrap of paper he apologised in a whisper, "I'm so sorry little spider. I was just playing and I didn't mean to force squeeze you so hard. I didn't even think it would work. I'll bury you in the yard tomorrow morning by the lavender bush. It smells kinda nice there and Dudley rarely plays in that corner."

After carefully placing the envelope on the top of his school books Harry sat back down and tried to make sense of what had just happened. The next night Harry scrunched up a piece of paper and with hand a clenched claw attempted to squeeze the paper ball. Nothing happened.

Nothing happened the next night either though he tried even harder. He alternated his attempts with rereadings of the books. He even borrowed the other two novels from the library and snuck them home to read in his cupboard. Nothing was happening but Harry was not deterred, frustrated yes, but he had no intention of giving up. This could be his ticket out of here.

Harry's school work suffered, he struggled to get up in the morning after staying up hours each night, usually till his eyes closed on their own accord due to sheer exhaustion. He heard one of the teachers talking about him to his Aunt asking about his activities and bed time. His Aunt made it sound like he did nothing but play around and cause trouble every night so his teacher suggested sending him to bed earlier. His Aunt reluctantly agreed and so to his surprise actually cut short his chores that night. Harry was so glad of the change that he actually cut short his attempts and reading that night and felt a lot better for it the next morning.

The following night Harry almost whooped with joy when the ball of paper crushed to half its original size. He had learnt two lessons and carefully made note of them. He really could control the force. Being tired made it difficult.

With his new found knowledge and confidence Harry worked out a plan. He needed to learn how to improve his skills and he needed to get fit. He was kicking himself for not realising that earlier. Yoda had forced Luke to do more than just force training. Why hadn't he picked up on that earlier?

Harry found that moving things with his mind was so much simpler than squeezing them, though he continued to practice that as well. Once again he mentally kicked himself for not thinking things through. It was obvious in hindsight, Darth Vader was already a master when he was doing the force squeeze. He should have started off with the same things Obi-Wan and Yoda had started teaching Luke. Sensing things whilst blindfolded and levitating stones.

**- There is no try -**

Harry's school work reached an all time low by summer break which was when Petunia threatened that he would go without dinner for a week if his teacher called her to complain once more. Harry couldn't afford to go without the meagre scraps they were providing him. He had already moved on to using his newfound abilities to unlock the cupboard and steal food at night to supplement his diet. Twice a day Harry was exercising now, in the mornings whilst in his cupboard he used an old set of weights discarded by Dudley to strengthen his muscles and mind, doing reps with his arms whilst he levitated as many of the spare weights as he could manage over his mattress. In the evenings after the rest were asleep he would sneak out of the house and going running and jumping, leaping and twisting pushing himself to faster speeds and higher leaps with his force. He'd hurt himself a number of times at the beginning, walking to school with a twisted ankle was no fun at all. Still he had persevered and had even scrawled Yoda's words on the underside of the stairs so he could stare up at them at night. "Do... or do not. There is no try."

Harry put more effort into his school work. Just enough to have the teacher no longer be disappointed in him. However that all changed when the science teacher introduced electronics to the class. Suddenly Harry realised that struggling though on maths was not going to be enough. The Jedi didn't just rely on their force powers. They used lightsabers and space ships and whilst they might not exist yet on Earth the Jedi wouldn't forgo whatever technology was around. He wasn't going to be Yoda hiding in a jungle or Obi-Wan hiding in a desert, they were the old people. He was young, he wanted to be Luke fighting the bad guys with laser guns, lightsabers and space ships.

Soon Harry was doing a lot better in all his classes. He had learnt to focus and when he put his mind to something he found himself able to get a lot further a lot quicker than he had ever before. It was the end of the school year when Harry used a new power successfully for the first time and it changed everything.

Petunia had just left the school at a brisk walk with a bored Dudley and a worried Harry trailing behind her. Harry could tell she was furious and was just waiting to get out of sight of the school before she began berating him. Harry knew why she was so angry. The teachers had all congratulated her on how well Harry was now doing and offering them their full support in helping Dudley learn from his example. Harry probably shouldn't have heard all that but he had found his senses also improving with practice, this was a power not from one of the novels but rather from one of the many illustrated Star Wars encyclopedia and activity books he had also read. He had been sitting at one end of the hall with all the other students in his year and those parents still waiting their turn. Dudley was reading a comic and Harry had been listening to the teacher speak to Aunt Petunia halfway across the noisy hall. He hadn't even been that interested in overhearing her and was just curious if he would be able to use his new hearing skills to pick out her and the teacher's voice amongst all the other closer and louder voices.

"As for Harry. Well I am very pleased to see that we have seen no more signs of the lack of motivation and interest we saw at the beginning of the year. Whatever you said to him obviously worked wonderfully. In fact if he continue improving at the rate he is I wouldn't be surprised to see him amongst the top five next year. It was only his overall marks that held him back this time. I must admit at one point myself and a few of the others teachers were a little concerned he was cheating but we undertook some individual tests and monitored him carefully and am glad to report it's nothing of the type. Can I ask how you encouraged him to improve?"

Petunia replied but Harry wasn't quick enough to change his focus to catch what it was and only just caught the teacher continuing.

"I understand. Modifying behaviour is never a simple thing. I would however suggest that you try to start implementing those same techniques on Dudley if you haven't already. His behaviour and performance have not improved as much as I would have liked. In fact…"

Dudley choose that time to start digging in his backpack for a packet of chips and using that as an excuse to elbow Harry causing him to lose focus and he didn't bother to regain it. He already could tell he was going to be in trouble from what little he had heard and his Aunt still had three other teachers to talk to.

Petunia turned and strode into the public park closest to the school. It was a overcast and drizzly day and the park was deserted. She spun on her heel and opened her mouth when Harry lifted his hand to give a small wave.

"You don't need to worry about my school results Aunt Petunia."

Petunia blinked. She was sure she had come her to talk about them, but now she was wondering why she had bothered.

"I'm not worried about your school results harry."

"What? But..." Dudley asked in a confused manner. He had been looking for to laughing when his mum lay into Harry about getting a better mark than him.

"You don't care about my school results either Dudley."

"Oh…. right.. yeah I don't care." Dudley gave Harry a stupefied smile. Harry thought it suited him.

Both his Aunt Petunia and Dudley stood still for a moment staring at him before Harry realised that they were still somewhat hypnotised by his use of the force. He wondered how much he could get away and then decided what the hell. He'd go for broke.

"We'll go home now and you'll both decide not to bother me as much anymore. Aunt Petunia you will tell Vernon that you'd prefer to have me around less and doing less of the house work as you are tired of having to redo my shoddy work. You will ask me to spend more of my time outside the house or doing my own thing. Dudley you will ignore me as much as possible and leave all my stuff along."

Petunia nodded at Harry , "Harry. I want you to start spend more time outside and not getting under my feet."

Dudley just turned and his face returned to it's normal whiny expression, "Can we go home now mum? I want to watch TV! I'm bored!"

Petunia nodded and left the park with a brisk walk, "Come on Dudley. Harry, dinner will be at 6:30. Don't be late."

She strode off leaving a slightly surprised and very pleased Harry behind.

That evening Harry confirmed that Uncle Vernon was just as weak-minded as his Aunt and Dudley. He wasn't sure how weak-minded a person needed to be before his powers would work so endeavoured to only use it on only the most foolish of people. He wouldn't describe any of his teachers as lacking in judgement or good sense, one of the dictionary definitions for weak-minded, and didn't want to say anything weird and ruin his reputation just after it had finally improved.

**- There is no try -**

That christmas Harry received his very first presents from the Dursleys. A collection of Star Wars related books including the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Of course he chose all the books and used the force to suggest to Aunt Petunia that it would be nice to buy them. At this time Harry was pretty sure that there must be a real Jedi or at least someone with the same powers as him out there using the movies and books to spread his knowledge to those interested. That he had been unable to find any non-fiction reference to the powers suggested that he also should keep his powers secret. He hoped he was not the only one with such powers that had discovered the truth.

He had joined the Star Wars fan club and got the newsletter but had been unable to find anything that suggested that anyone else had similar powers. The few that spoke openly about their powers came across as childish or liars and Harry didn't want to be associated with them. If there were others like him out there he was sure they would be more capable of finding him than he would be of finding them. He did however send in a couple of letters for the newsletter with what he thought were very subtle messages in how wonderful he thought it would be to have such powers to help solve the worlds problems. Nothing came of them.

Undeterred Harry continued his training and learning. With the guidance from the roleplaying game he decide that he currently was a youngling and until he was training with a sword he couldn't really call himself even a self trained initiate. Some research led him to believe that one of the Filipino martial arts like Arnis or Escrima would be closest to what he wanted, however being that there was no such school nearby he satisfied himself by having Aunt Petunia enrol him in both a Karate and a Kung Fu class. As with everything he now put his mind to he put in many hours into the study of both. He initially thought it would be confusing to learn the two different styles and had planned to drop one once he had decided which we most appropriate. However they were distinct enough that in the end he decided to keep up with both.

It wasn't until his tenth birthday that he first started thinking of himself as a true initiate rather than a youngling. He had advanced relatively quickly in both his martial arts and they had started instructing him on the use of weapons. The sword was only one a few that he was been taught but he considered it enough that he was finally learning the majority of what he should be. At school he was top of his year in maths and science and in the top five for the rest of his subjects. He was aware that he could have done better but even with his reduced need for sleep there just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day after all his force and physical training or subjects that had no real relevance to the Jedi way. He now slept no longer than six hours a night and found that he was fine with as little as four as long as he didn't continue it for more than two nights at a time.

Anyone visiting No 4 Privet drive for the first time in a couple of years might not have recognised the family that now lived there. After much soul searching and watching Star Wars IV many times he had followed Obi-Wan's example and did his best to help his relatives. A few suggestions had been all it had taken for Dudley to start eating properly and study harder. It had been harder work to change his Uncle into the person he was now proud to call family. It wasn't until Vernon had received a glowing performance review and a significant promotion that Vernon stopped fighting against Harry's suggestions teaching Harry a valuable lesson on how much easier it was to use his powers to influence someone when you weren't fighting against their natural instincts.

Harry's careful experimentation with this led him to discover that his powers also worked on animals and that he could even use it wordlessly on both animals and people and though it was significantly less effective when he did it that way it was a lot less obvious. A significant advantage. His testing with animals also led him to the discovery that he could speak to snakes. Strangely, as he discovered after much confusion, he worked out that it wasn't that the snake that could understand his english, rather that he could speak the language of snakes. No matter how many books he research he couldn't find any connection between that and Star Wars or even the so called real world supernatural powers. Not in the way he could do it. It was a true mystery. The snakes for their part couldn't explain it and it was almost as if they weren't fully aware of themselves until after he first spoke to them.

Harry now had two small Kingsnakes that lived in a large tank in one corner of his room. A room that he had been able to call his own for a few years now. His cupboard was just a bad memory and one that didn't disturb his dreams at all. The two snakes, who he had named Han and Leia, were his best friends though thankfully no longer his only friends. He had even struck up an almost friendship with his cousin Dudley. Dudley had been most impressed with Harry had introduced the much reduced but still bulky boy to karate. Dudley was keen to try boxing but there were no appropriate classes in the area and Harry had suggested karate as an interim measure. The kids at school were friendly with him for the most part but Harry never saw any of them as close friends. He had different interests than them and was a little too focused for them to be comfortable around him for too long.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

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**- There is no try -**

Things changes significantly just prior to his eleventh birthday. Dudley had returned to the table after collecting the mail.

"Looks like another acceptance letter for you Harry. Fancy one. Just how many schools did you apply for?"

Harry reached across to take the letter, "Six and I've already got letters from them all. Must be something else."

"Weird." he stated aloud as he examined the thick yellow parchment with the strange address. Who writes 'First Bedroom on the right.' on an envelope?

"What's weird dear?" Aunt Petunia asked as she came back in from the Kitchen.

"This envelope. Address to me in my bedroom, no stamp, made of parchment and sealed with wax." Harry held it up so his Aunt could see and was rather surprised when she gasped and sat down heavily.

"What's wrong Aunt Petunia?" he asked worriedly. He quickly checked her aura and was relieved to see no signs of sickness, however he normal placid emotions were being overwhelmed with distress and worry. He sent a small wave of calm to her, enough to take the edge off her emotions.

Petunia looked up at Vernon who was eyeing her with a touch of worry in his eyes over his newspaper. "Vernon, it's from 'Them'. They are going to take Harry away."

"What? I thought they wouldn't bother us if he didn't.. you know what." Vernon spluttered as he limply dropped his newspaper over his eggs.

Harry and Dudley looked back and forth between the two adults trying to understand.

Dudley opened his mouth but Harry spoke up first raising one hand up slightly to increase the effect. "Everyone calm down and sit down. Aunt Petunia, you're going to slowly explain what this is all about."

Within seconds Aunt Petunia and Dudley had joined Harry and Vernon at the table.

"When we were just small girls we all noticed something different about your mum Harry. She could do things that no one else could do. Making flowers bloom in winter, mending ripped clothes before our parents could see, making annoying boys shoelaces get tangled without touching them. She could do magic. It was wonderful until they came and took her away. She had to go to a special school, one that I wasn't allowed to. We had did everything together. I was only ten months older so we were even in the same class at school. We were both devastated. As the years passed we got further and further apart. Me and her new best friend couldn't stand each other, things were said, we both got angry and barely spoke for years. By the end of highschool we only ever met up at the family christmas dinners. Now I'm worried I'm going to lose you the same way. All because she was a Witch that could use magic and I was a filthy Muggle." Even with one of his most powerful calming compulsions Petunia still put her face in her hands and started to sob quietly. In a second the three males were all at her side offering her words of comfort.

Harry let her husband and son speak first before adding his own words in agreement, "Whatever happens or whatever school I go to Aunt Petunia. You're always be my family and I'll still love you."

With one hand and a touch of force he opened the letter and quickly read over the couple of pieces of parchment within.

Instantly his mind was full of questions. Was magic something different from the force or were they the same thing being used in different ways? Would being trained in the force mean he wouldn't be able to use it for this medieval sounding magic or would he just have to relearn everything? What would these obviously very traditional people think about his rather modern themed powers, would they treat him as something undesirable?

He quickly decided he'd have to be very careful here and he needed a lot more information. He had shared with no one not even his snakes what kind of powers he had and it seemed even more important now that he keep it to himself. If these magical people had schools then they were obviously organised. Organised people had rules. He needed to know those rules and how to avoid getting on their wrong side.

**- There is no try -**

It was an easy decision in the end. He could continue his normal education by self study easily enough but it sounded like, from the number of stories that Aunt Petunia had now told them all, that the rules that the magic users lived by were a lot less flexible. Her information was dated but every story she told added to the feeling that these people took traditionalism to the extreme.

Harry watched with amusement as the owl took his written request for more information. He had kept it very polite and positive without actually accepting the place.

Aunt Petunia had taken him the previous day to the Dursley's long time storage unit and after an hour of sorting and sifting through his grandparents old belongings they had come across a large trunk that Petunia recognised with a sob, "This was your mum's first school trunk. She used this for a few years before she replaced it with one that was bigger on the inside than on the outside." She broke into loud sobs for while before Harry managed to calm her down, "That was one of the last times we were actually nice to each other. Even I thought it was amazing. Now it just reminds me of everything that was taken away from us. I've never opened it but I think you should take it. Just be careful okay Harry? I really do love you." Harry had nodded and gave his Aunt a hug.

Now after the owl had vanished from sight he resumed his examination of the contents. He had already read enough to be sure he wanted to attend the school. Now it was time to find out as much as he could before he got there. Putting aside 'Your first magic and your muggle parents.' and 'Rules for young wizards, witches and muggle relations.' he lifted up the first year charms book and found his place and continued reading.

By the time a reply had returned he had attempted many of the spells using either empty hands, a stick or a pencil with no success. He had also tried combining his control over the force with the magical incantations starting with the levitation charm Wingardium Leviosa, however with or without the incantation and motions it seemed to neither add nor subtract from his ability to lift things.

The most surprising discovery was when he attempted to replicate one of the simpler charms using his force powers. He chose a simple colour changing charm whose purpose was to change the colour of ink on a page. After attempting the charm in every way he could think of without an actual wand he cleared his mind of all incantations and movements and reached for the force. It was an exercise he really only used during meditation these days, he had developed his ability to use the force with conscious connection except for the times when he had need to heal a small cut or scrape. Something that happened fairly frequently as he continued to push his running, leaping and falling abilities to their limit.

With his mind clear except for the warmth of the force and its connection to everything around him he narrowed his concentration down to the ink on the notepad in front of him. Being something he had never attempted it took a few minutes until he could finally feel the colour of the ink. He gave it a slight nudge and was surprised to see the ink fade to a dark brown. Another nudge and it turned to orange. Smiling with success to spent the next hour experimenting with shifting the colour of various objects in his room.

Then he sat down and began to think. There was no mention that he had ever seen of using the force to change the colour of an object. It could be something unknown but then again it could just as easy be something not seen as important enough to share. It didn't prove anything. Even if he managed transfiguration with the force it didn't necessarily mean that the force wasn't correct. Then again did using the force mean that magic wasn't correct either? It seemed accidental magic was a pretty much catchall for everything that he could do. He briefly worried once more what using a wand might do to his connection with the force before mentally scolding himself. If it made it difficult to access his force he would just relearn whatever he needed. He smiled and reassured himself with the words of Yoda as he often did when encountering something difficult. 'Do… or do not. There is no try.'

He was still smiling when he felt another presence approaching. Animalistic, slightly familiar, an owl but not one he had encountered before. It was almost identical to the owl that had been frequenting the tree in the backyard ever since the acceptance letter had arrived, though Harry's keen eyes picked up the slightly darker neck feathers and tail feathers as it deposited the thin novel sized package on his desk before landed on his open windowsill.

"Why thank you kind owl. Would you care for a small piece of chicken?"

The owl quickly devoured the few pieces of cooked chicken Harry had saved for just such an occurrence.

_Dear Mr Potter_

_In regard to your query I have included a guide to the wizard world. It is aimed at muggleborns but being muggle raised you should find it answers most of your questions. _

_You need not concern yourself with school fees as your parents made provision for your Hogwarts education on the occasion of your first accidental magic add is the custom. We are also happy to provide assistance traveling to Diagon Alley for the purchase of all your school requirements however as it's not legal to purchase a wand until you are eleven years old we will not be able to assist you till the 31st of July. _

_Please read through the attached book and if you have any further questions please feel free to ask. Otherwise I look forward to your letter of acceptance and one of our staff will meet with you on the morning of the 31st._

_Yours sincerely_

_Professor McGonagall_

_P.S. Dear Harry, I've attached a copy of your parents photo from their final year book. They made head boy and girl. I miss them dearly._

Harry smiled and pulled out the photo that was tucked into the front cover of the book. He was surprised and pleased to see the photo moved. His parents looked very happy standing quite close together in their school robes and wearing their head boy and girl badges. Using a mirror Harry compared himself to his father. He noted that apart from his hair, which he grew long and his father's eye colour and glasses, there was a striking similarity.

From his mum he looked at have inherited hey striking green eyes and gentle smile. He was rather pleased to have the photo as all his Aunt had of them were a few from large family gatherings where everyone was wearing forced smiles.

He looked up and grinned at the owl, "Well there is no denying that it's all real now. If you're ready for another flight I'll write my acceptance letter." Once Harry had felt the owls unspoken understanding and agreement he pulled out a sheet of sketching paper his calligraphy pen. It wasn't the same as what they used but it was the closest he could easily get.

The book he put to the side. He certainly didn't need to read that slightly useful but very demeaning piece of propaganda again.

Then he returned to reading his mum's old textbooks and the few notes she had left behind. He only wish he knew what had happened to the rest of their belongings. Aunt Petunia told him she lost contact with them around the time her parents had passed away. They did die in a car accident unlike what she admitted happened to his parents. Unfortunately apart from knowing that a dark wizard had murdered them she didn't know anything more or even how to begin asking. It was something Harry planned to rectify when he met with his teachers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

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**- There is no try -**

Harry was ready and waiting and was pleased when he first sensed someone different approaching his home. His eyes widened imperceptibly when he realised that the presence was like no one he had ever felt before. It certainly wasn't human or at least fully human, it was large and powerful, wild but not violent. In fact if anything it was a happy presence. Someone who felt at peace with their, no his, place in the world.

Smiling happily Harry moved to the front door and open the door right after the first rather large knock. He blinked and looked up and then up a bit more, it turned out that the feeling or largeness wasn't just his force presence. No this person was literally huge.

"Hello Harry. Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yeh mom's eyes."

Harry beamed, "Hello Sir. Did you know my parents well?"

The big man reached out with one hand, "I did indeed and no calling me Sir. Hagrid it is. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Interesting place you got here." Hagrid said as he peered down the hall whilst shaking Harry's hand.

"Oh sorry. Would you like to come in?" Harry asked.

"Naah. Tis okay. That is unless yeh not ready to go?"

Harry shook his head, "Oh no Sir.. I mean Hagrid. I'm ready." He lifted up his backpack and slung it over his shoulders.

"Right then. Let's go. We'll take the train if that's okay. Not a big fan of the knight bus you know."

Harry just nodded not really understanding but not caring either. Understanding would come in time.

The journey was pretty interesting and Harry was amused to see how unusual Hagrid found the muggle world. It certainly sounded like it was going to be an eye opening experience in Diagon Alley considering how many so called normal things were unfamiliar to the half giant. Harry hadn't been shy about asking and Hagrid had answered without question.

"My family all this size? Naah. Me dad was just a normal sized wizard me mum's a giant though. She's gone back to the rest of the giants now that dad's not with us anymore. Not many o' us around."

He certainly caught the eyes of a lot of the regular folk and Harry wondered how close Hagrid was to breaking the wizard secrecy laws just by walking around.

By the time they had reached Diagon Alley Harry had a better picture of how his parents had died. A Dark Lord who called himself Voldemort, either a foreign or made up name Harry guessed, seeking power and killing those who opposed him. Harry was pleased to find out that his parents had been some of those actively fighting against him, led by the great Albus Dumbledore. Harry instinctively sent a wave of calm to Hagrid when he teared up a bit during the story and was surprised to find it had some, albeit reduced, effect.

To Harry's question about Hagrid being a wizard he got a rather broken story of Hagrids days at Hogwarts plus a bunch more platitudes about how great a wizard Dumbledore was. It took a bit of effort till Harry managed to weasel out of Hagrid that indeed he had been raising a dangerous creature in the school at the time though he had trained it to not harm anyone and couldn't have been responsible due to the nature of the injuries. Harry guessed Hagrid probably didn't understand just how tough he was in comparison to normal people. Even so he felt himself liking the big fellow.

Being swarmed by well wishes in the Leaky Cauldron wasn't Harry's idea of fun and he decided he definitely was going to look into magical ways of concealing one's appearance. He grimaced and bore it until he could finally make his escape. The experience wasn't helped by the fact that he sensed the echo of something very dark within that room however it was quickly overwhelmed by all the other unfamiliar and powerful magical presences.

Diagon Alley was impressive though it took Harry a little while to adjust to the sheer strength of the force within the magical place. It wasn't the force as he felt off living things but rather a more complicated blend of currents. Almost artificial in a way as if magic was something created out of the raw force. Harry cleared his mind of all the questions that started to spring up. For now he decided he would observe and learn in as objective a manner as he could manage. Later he would meditate on what it all meant.

At Gringotts Harry discovered that he had an impressive about of gold, silver and bronze coins in his safe. Upon enquiring he discovered that the Potters also had a vault that he could access when he came of age. Unfortunately the goblins couldn't or wouldn't tell him if his parents old school things were inside it.

After Gringotts a queasy Hagrid left Harry to get a drink to settle his nerves so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone. The smiling woman soon had Harry standing on a footstool beside a similarly positioned pale skinned, blonde haired boy.

"Hello, Hogwarts too?" the boy asked in a bored, drawling voice as he turned his head lazily to look Harry over.

"Yes." Harry answered. He sensed a smug feeling of entitlement and imagined that the boy would have liked to look down his nose as Harry if Harry hadn't been taller than him.

He didn't pay a lot of attention to what the boy was saying until he started asking questions which Harry responded with simple, short but still polite answers. Only when the boy asked which house he would be in did his answer get a response.

"Good chance you'll be in Gryffindor as well then if they both were. A lot of powerful wizards have came out of that house. I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

Harry was fairly bored with the obnoxious and obviously rich boy but didn't want to create any issues so he just shrugged.

"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly. He had spotted Hagrid standing outside the front window with two large ice creams.

Harry waved at Hagrid, "That's Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. Some sort of a savage who lives in a hut in the school grounds where he gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed."

Harry sighed, though he wouldn't put it past Hagrid to do just what the boy said the emotions coming off him and the way the boy said it was very unpleasant. He wondered just how prevalent such attitudes were, likely his father and or his father's friends had passes on their own opinions to the boy.

"I would think Hagrid is one of the few individuals that is truly satisfied with what he has. Hardly something to deride."

"Satisfied with such a life? Why on earth would anyone be happy with that?" the boy asked dismissively. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"Murdered by Voldemort." Harry said flatly.

After giving a small yelp the almost fell off his chair, "Hey you can't go saying his name like that!"

Harry just looked down at the boy and shrugged, "I would have to say that I can as I just proved."

The boy just looked up him blankly but at that point Madam Malkin finished taking measurements and the boys separated as Harry went to change and the other boy left with his finished robes.

Next Harry asked to go and purchase a trunk. Harry tossed up for a while between a multiple compartment trunk and a simpler one with a space expansion charm and slightly better security. He ignored Hagrid's suggestion to get a cheaper one and the shopkeepers attempts to purchase a much more expensive model with multiple expanded charms and in the end choose the space expansion charm since that was what his mother had used using according to his Aunt. He also requested and had the shopkeeper add wheels to it, something that cost seven sickles for fifteen seconds wand work. Harry had to wonder at that.

Harry went a little overboard at the Flourish and Blotts causing both Hagrid and Mr Blotts to comment that Harry looked like a budding Ravenclaw. Hagrid ran a watchful eye over Harry's purchases but didn't say anything about his choices though he did raise a large eyebrow at 'Charms to Conceal, Camouflage and Cover up.'

At the Apothecary Harry surprised both Hagrid and the storeman by pulling out an extensive list of the ingredients he wanted. After checking the prices he crossed a few off the list and explained that he just wanted to be prepared. It took a slight compulsion before they relented and provided him with some of the more dangerous and highly reactive ingredients on his list. Harry was well aware that it wasn't recommended to create potions unsupervised but that wasn't going to stop him. He'd start with the safer ones and move up gradually. It wasn't age regulated or monitored by the Ministry of Magic, what regulations existed were more related to the selling and purchasing on ingredients and potions and the poisoning or potioning of people and he wanted to start learning magic as soon as possible.

Hagrid purchased a beautiful snowy owl for Harry as his birthday present. At the time Harry was slowly opening his force senses again. It was still challenging with all the magic pressing down on him but it was getting better. Unfortunately when he reaching Ollivanders he had to close his force sense back down again. There was just too many conflicting and highly complicated force signatures crowded into the tiny shop. He wasn't sure if it was just the sheer number of wands but they felt a lot different from the wands he had felt being carried by the wizards and witches walking past him on the street.

Mr. Ollivander was a strange man and Harry wished he could have opened his sense up to get a feeling of his emotions. The news that his wand shared a core with that of the one that caused his scar concerned him a lot more than he let show. He already knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. This needed to be investigated.

The journey home passes pleasantly enough. He ate dinner with Hagrid, no point upsetting his family with the half-giants presence reminding them of what they had lost.

**- There is no try -**

That night Harry entered the nearby nature reserve alone. He had followed his force sense inside him further than ever and he had learnt something about his scar that he certainly didn't like. There was a darkness within it. He had the feeling that it was weaker now that it had been, but he couldn't pinpoint where that particular feeling came from. Still he trusted his force sense. It was rarely wrong though sometimes his understanding of it was less than perfect.

The phoenix feather wand was an incredible piece of work. Never had he felt such a complicated mesh of force lines and signatures. Previously he had been astounded by the complexity of the moving picture of his parents but that paled in comparison with the wand, and the wand was changing. It was adapting to him. For a while he was concerned that it was changing him as well but upon careful examination that proved not to be the case. The wand was shifting to better link with his force signature. HIs magical signature rather, he decided he need to watch his terminology around wizards. At best they might think he was just careless at worst they might decide he was doing something illegal.

For this experiment he had left magical in his room. What he was attempting was a lot easier without all those magical signatures surrounding him.

Finding a small clearing amongst tree and bushes from which there was no line of sight to the nearby roads or houses he set up the small camping light on its lowest setting and sat crosslegged staring at it. After a few minutes of just breathing exercises he closed his eyes and entered one his meditative states. From there he carefully examined and took measure of the dark taint deep within his scar. It was like a growth that had the finest on tendrils that reached out along his own force lines. Here he was able to confirm that those dark tendrils were withered and weak. Fragments and broken off and though faint scars existed in areas they were already starting to heal.

He let his sense follow the tendrils to their source, a complex tangle of blackness that was twisted and torn. It wasn't as complex as a wand's signature but more complex that the magical picture. In fact, he realised after examining it for many minutes, it was nearer the complexity of a living creatures mind, but broken. Was this the remnants of a failed dark curse as he had first suspected or something else? He decide it didn't matter. It didn't belong and he was pretty sure he knew how to get rid of it.

He started slowly feeling out for the force around him. Connecting to all the living creatures around him. The trees had the largest and strongest signatures and he connected to them first. They filled him with a sense of peace. Next he connected with the smaller simpler plants, the grass, the flowers the bushes. Their life was quicker more competitive and the feeling of their force contained that. The insects were next, their tiny but much more complex lives filled him with the joy of discovery and excitement. Now that he knew what to look for he noticed that the dark stain seemed to exude a sense of fear. It was aware he realised and later he was thankful that he was in his deepest meditative state by that moment as the thought provoked no emotional response from him till afterwards. A few more minutes passed as he connected to everything in the park and slightly beyond. Then he pushed the power out.

With hand outstretched in the familiar claw shape he started condensing the air above him. A massive ball of air some ten meters in diameter. There was no purpose to the exercise other than to funnel as much force through himself as he could. Squeezing an object was difficult, but squeezing and holding air was at a whole different level. But the force was willing and gradually he could feel the ball start to shrink and as it did so he could feel the dark taint withering. He started sweating when the ball had reduced to half its original size, it was a struggle just to hold it but he keep squeezing. At a third of its starting size he started shaking, at a quarter the shakes were so bad he could feel himself being bruised by the hard earth beneath his bouncing knees and legs. But he was almost there. The dark taint was shaking and writhing as it was drained. As the ball finally reached a quarter of its size he knew he had done all that was needed and likely couldn't go any further. Only the faintest remnants of the taint remained now and by the time he had gradually released the ball back to its full size and dismissed the force ball it was gone and Harry collapsed limply to the ground.

It was half an hour before Harry had the strength to lift himself up and start stumbling back towards home.

The next morning he wasn't quite fully recovered but he already felt somehow cleaner than he ever had before. He meditated and confirmed they was no more stain anywhere within. The damage it had done was already healing and much more rapidly than before. He also noted that his core seemed more dense than before, as if it had absorbed all the energy within the taint during the process. He wondered if that meant that without that taint and his exercises his core wouldn't have been as large. He expected that he would never know as there was no way he knew to examine someone else's core. Only through the deepest meditation could he open his core up enough so that he himself could examine it. Opening his core up anymore was beyond him and likely extremely dangerous.

Harry spent the day spending time with his family and celebrating his birthday a day late. It was a good day and he went to bed early. Tomorrow he planned to start his magical education in earnest, beginning with potions.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

**- There is no try -**

Dudley grasped his hand for a moment before they both grinned and pulled each other into a hug.

"Take care of yaself Harry."

"You too Duds." Harry replied with a smile.

Uncle Vernon was next and gave Harry a firm handshake. "Take care of yourself boy and… well send us a letter after you settle in." Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise and Vernon shrugged, "We'll survive the occasional owl."

With a half sob half giggle Aunt Petunia pulled him into a tight hug then released him and straightened his shirt. "You have a good time and make lots of friends just…" she trailed off.

Harry nodded and smiled, "Don't worry Aunt Petunia I understand. Anyhow I'll be back for Christmas. I'll see you all then."

With smiles waves and another hug from his Aunt Harry slung his backpack over his shoulders and departed wheeling his trolley behind him. It took only a few minutes to feel the magical field surrounding one of the pillars near platform ten so he walked confidently into the pillar as his Aunt had advised him to do.

This time he was able to enjoy the sensation of the thick magic as it washed over him. It had taken two full day visits to Diagon Alley for him to finally adjust to the sheer amount of magic there. There was still a lot of room for improvement but he could at least differentiate between the magical signatures of people, wands and items around him even if being able to pick a specific individual out of such a crowd was still beyond him.

After admiring the huge red steam train for a moment and getting a feel for the magic that imbued it he climbed aboard and started looking for a compartment. It was still early and mostly empty so after passing a number of older children in the first few compartments he found an empty one and took a seat, pulled out an adventure novel and started to read.

Shortly after a tall curly haired boy paused at his door and asked politely if Harry was saving the seats for anyone. Soon Harry and Justin Finch-Fletchley were chatting away about the schools they had been planning to go and then about their thoughts about Hogwarts. Justin had read up on the school about as much as Harry had but had chosen a few different books so it they had plenty to talk about.

Prior the the train leaving Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones joined them after a few light giggles and a shove at the compartment door. Both Hannah and Susan had heard all the crazy tales about the boy-who-lived and were surprised that the scar was not more prominent.

Once the taint was removed Harry found it much easier to heal the scar and though he was tempted to remove it totally, he thought that such a change would cause too many questions since he had already been spotted with it. So he just reduced it so it wasn't so apparent. He had already learnt methods to disguise himself enough that he wasn't swarmed during his other visits to Diagon Alley so it wasn't as important anymore.

Harry quickly but politely disabused them that there was any factual information in any of the stories they had read. He made no secret of the fact that their soon to be Headmaster was the one responsible for seeing that he was raised as a muggle though he made it clear that he hadn't minded even though learning about the magical world so late was a shock. After a while Harry withdrew from the conversation somewhat and finally returned to reading his book. Justin, Susan and Hannah were all nice but he already could tell that he was just a little too different from them, too intense, too mature for them to become truly close friends. Part way through their journey Hannah and Susan left the compartment to go find and say hello to their other friends.

They obviously weren't shy about talking about who they had been sitting with because within minutes a stream of visitors came by to introduce themselves. Both Harry and a bemused Justin had to keep introducing themselves and it felt like they had both been introduced to half the school by the time the snack cart came by and things started to settle down. Harry briefly spotted the blonde boy he had briefly spoke with at Madam Malkin's but the boy eyed the crowd and retreated without saying anything.

After a unsatisfying lunch of sweet pastries and snacks, Harry decided he would bring a packed lunch next time, Hannah and Susan rejoined them along with a boy named Ernie MacMillan. Along with Justin they were soon engrossed in a conversation with them about the differences between wizarding and muggle sports. Harry contributed for a little while before turning back to his book. He looked forward to flying but Quidditch sounded too uneven to be much fun.

It was quieter after lunch but still his compartment received the occasional visitor. A red haired boy who decided without asking to squeeze in between Harry and Justin and to start telling Harry all about himself and asking impolite questions. Harry used his force suggestion to have the boy leave him alone. Three of the red haired boys brothers had visited earlier and they had seemed okay. The older a bit formal but polite.

A shy boy that Ernie, Susan and Hannah all knew came by looking for his toad rather than Harry which was a welcome change. When Ernie pompously introduced Harry to him Neville just gave him a small smile and a nod. Harry could feel the boys nervousness and sent him some confidence towards him with the boy's emotions eagerly absorbed and he left with much more of a spring in his step. A minute after that a bushy haired girl stuck her head in asking about the Neville's toad, she was interrupted from introducing herself by Neville calling from further down the train that he had found his toad and with a little wave she headed away.

**- There is no try -**

Hogwart's aura was strong than Diagon Alley and Ollivanders but neither as muddled as the Alley nor as complex as the wand maker's. Being more used to encountering areas of strong magic Harry was able to adjust much quicker this time and he was already getting the hang of it by the time he disembarked from the small boat he had shared with Justin and Ernie.

As the crowd of first years gathered the feeling of worry was rather overwhelming so Harry sent out a gentle wave of reassurance and was gratified that it was accepted without question. It worked so well that when the ghosts appeared there was only surprise and no shock and when Professor McGonagall made her appearance Harry noted her surprise at how calm him and his peers all were.

The great hall was spectacular but Harry barely noticed. He felt the same dark presence that he had felt at the Leaky Cauldron again, and not just an echo this time. It was in the room with him. He barely paid attention as the magical hat sung it's song and the McGonagall started calling names. By the time he heard his name and automatically walked forward with a mild smile on his face he was sure that the presence originated from the staff table. By the time he was sitting at the table shaking hands with a few of his fellow Gryffindors he was certain it was the turban wearing professor Quirrell. He presumed that the dark presence had the ability to move around and wasn't always the professors companion. He presumed that it hadn't been there when last he met the professor but had just left an echo.

Harry couldn't detect any feelings of struggle or oppression and he wondered if Quirrell was a willing recipient of that darkness. He idly answered the occasional question directed his way. Once again he had to retell the story of his arrival at his muggle home as told to him by his Aunt including being left in the cold November on the doorstep with just a letter from Albus Dumbledore. That always seemed to generate a lot of confusion and in some cases concern. The headmaster was always seen as a little mad but this was pushing it to the extremes of dangerously bizarre behaviour. Harry wasn't that concerned, he had learnt that the ability to be humble and learn from your mistakes was a ability that all great men should learn to develop.

Harry spent the night experimenting with minor spells using his wand. It was great to finally be allowed to use it and he had been shocked to find that Hermione and a few others had attempted spells and in some cases succeeded after they had first received it without any sort of warning. Maybe there was some leeway the first time you brought it home, it was a pity he had missed that opportunity. Now he was making up for lost time, casting minor spells and then carefully examining their magical signature and the way the wand helped form and shape his power into the desired shape. He soon worked out that providing the raw power in the form of a carefully shaped force stream gave the best result. The wand itself seemed able to interpret his movements, words and desires and use patterns within it to further shape that stream or raw force or magic into an actual spell. The complexity of the resultant spell was well beyond his ability to generate though he could duplicate the effect with simpler force streams. He wondered if the complexity was important or just a result of using the wand to do the shaping.

Harry went to sleep at midnight and woke at five am. Whilst he could exercise his muscles with weights in the privacy of his curtained and silence charmed four poster he still needed to space to run, leap and practice falling. Donning his exercise outfit he made his way quickly from the castle allowing his instincts to direct him through the maze of corridors and halls. He could feel various paths and shortcuts branching away from the main path but he resisted exploring, he could feel complex magic twisting those paths and he would need to centre himself before traversing them otherwise they'd probably muddle his direction sense.

He choose a path running through the light wood that bordered the lake choosing for the moment to avoid the much denser forbidden forest. He would explore that after he had settled in to castle life. There were plenty of boulders, low hanging branches and bushes to practice his jumping and dodging and he returned sweaty and happy with his efforts. Tomorrow he would load up his backpack with weights and do it again.

**- There is no try -**

Classes turned out to be very easy and he spent as much time helping his fellow students with the practical side as he did examining the complexities of the spells they were being taught. Occasionally the theory the lecturers provided gave him an insight on what he was seeing but generally the theory turned out to be more in the lines of observations of effects rather than causes. Charms was interesting and occasionally opened up his mind to new ways to use his own powers. Transfiguration on the other hand seemed to require a massive paradigm shift in his understanding of the force. It was like beginning again from scratch and though it was easy enough to transfigure a match into a needle with a wand to do so using raw force turned out to be such a challenge he had to mark it as a long term project before it started to eat into the time he was devoting to his other projects.

After reading his set books, and a number of others that seemed related, history class quickly became a convenient time to complete his homework. The bushy haired Gryffindor brainiac Hermione had been impressed with how dedicated he was in class until she realized what he was actually doing. She hadn't been making many friends with her desire to answer every single question and her bossy attempts to help others. Harry politely ignored her for a few weeks before finally taking her aside and in a gentle manner explained that most people need to be gradually helped and her attempts at forcing people to change were just going to make people turn stubborn. His explanation was assisted by a few gentle force compulsions and with a few weeks she was on friendlier terms with the others Gryffindors and had even made a few friends in Ravenclaw. Herbology was interesting and Harry always enjoyed getting hands on with the plants, especially the quick ones as they were a great way to test his reflexes. Neville turned out to natural and with Harry's gentle help his confidence was quickly building as well.

Fixing Neville's wand was his first serious attempt at manipulating a complicated magical field. It hadn't taken long for Harry to see that it was the second biggest cause of Neville's spell casting issues and it was also interfering with his attempts to boost Neville's confidence, the number one issue. Comparing how Harry's own wand and that of other student's fitted together with the magical signature of their owner with Neville's mismatched wand Harry had the idea about resetting the connection that seemed to have formed poorly. It took a few weeks of experimentation with minor enchanted objects till he felt it was time to try.

Early one morning Harry quietly woke up whilst his roommates were sound asleep and summoned Neville's wand to his curtained bed. He gave the old and well worn wand a speculative look before he levitated it in front of him and entered a meditative state. Reached forward with the force he grasped hold of and started unravelling the magical patterns that made up the connection between the wand and its owner. Harry soon realised that it wasn't connected to Neville at all but rather someone with different signature. Harry noted some similarities and took note of them for later investigation before he unravelled the last strange of magic. Once that was done he released his force hold, but when it suddenly started to connect to his signature he had to go back in and do a touch more unravelling before helping direct the connection over to Neville. He watched intently as the connection formed. The complexity of it still impressed him; being able to unravel the connection he could just handle and directing the target of the connection was easy but even trying to grasp how he could begin to create such a connection was beyond well beyond his comprehension.

Neville's performance in all his classes picked up dramatically during the following week.

A week later he also did the same for Ron Weasley who he had discovered was a little more vulnerable to suggestion that Harry could have imagined. The boy was still almost unable to see Harry after his first suggestion to leave him alone. However after watching his behaviour at meals Harry didn't care enough to undo the compulsion.

The other strange thing about Ron was his pet rat. There was something unusual about all the wizarding pets, most were much more intelligent and had much more complicated force and magical signatures than their normal counterparts, however Ron's rat was a level more complex than even the most intelligent fully familiar bonded pets he had seen amongst the older students. It also had a pair of very faint dark taints that seemed somehow to follow it around but without being directly attached to it. Harry had made a few attempts to investigate them but his force sense just seemed to fall away whenever he thought he was getting somewhere. It was weird and something he would have to return after his control improved. They didn't seem to be hurting the rat which fluttered between being hungry and content whenever it wasn't sleeping.

Harry had his second run in with Draco a few days after the sorting ceremony. This time Draco was backed up by two bigger boys. Harry didn't hesitate and hit all three of them with a number of compulsions to improve themselves and try and be better men than their fathers. It was the best he could do for them, they were designed to be long last suggestions and unless the three of them fought against them it would help each of them along that path to a better life. It was the same he was doing for most of the first years, looking for ways in which people wished to improve and then giving them a mental nudge to assist them achieve it. He also assisted a few of the older students with similar positive suggestions though he didn't put as much force into those as there was a chance that their magic would resist even a positive external force.

**- There is no try -**

Harry was initially saddened that out of everyone he had seen or sensed at the school there was no one that seemed to have a similar connection to the force to him, however he didn't dwell on it. Between his school work, his training, his private study of the connection between magic and the force and his investigation of the two tainted professors he had little spare time.

The first defence lesson tested his composure more than it had even been before. Sitting in a room trying to show polite interest as the professor stuttered his way through a poor explanation of the material in the book whilst the dark presence prodded and pushed at his defences was challenging. Harry did his best to give the appearance of just another student in action and mental activity. Holding two independent streams of thoughts in his mind at the same time had been one of his most difficult achievements and he was very glad of the ability during his defence classes.

He quickly determined that dark presence was very powerful and Harry was soon spending a great deal of time researching possession, spirits and ghosts. however without more magical tools at his disposal to investigate with it was hard to relate his force sense with the descriptions given in the books.

When Harry had his first potions class things got even more interesting.

"Ah, yes," Professor Snape said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity."

Given that the Professor was staring at him as he said it Harry just gave him a small nod. Then he felt a prod, similar but more subtle than that from the dark presence in the defence class. Harry let it see thoughts related to reading his potions book in preparation for the class and the prod faded as the Professor continued calling out the rest of the roll.

After a well rehearsed and well spoken introduction the Professors eyes snapped back to Harry.

"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry could sense the dark anticipation coming of the professor and the Slytherins as it turned to surprise and mild disappointment when he answered, "The base for the Draught of Living Death potion."

"Indeed, and what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"They're both alternate names for the plant most commonly called Aconite."

Professor Snape replied with some snide warning that having a good memory was not enough to do well with potions and why wasn't everyone else writing that done but Harry was barely paying attention. He had picked up on another dark taint within the room. It was rather weak and it wasn't until he had finished collecting his ingredients that he had pinpointed its location to Professor Snape's inner left forearm.

As Harry idly prevented Neville adding the porcupine quills too early as he focused his force perception in until he could picture in his head a snake coming out of the mouth of a skull. It was some sort of tattoo imbued with dark intent.

Harry could sense Snape's incredible disappointment when he found nothing to complain about with his and Neville's potion. Harry couldn't resist a slight shake of his head at his disappointment with yet another of their teachers. So far he had four decent teachers and three that should never have been allowed to teach.

By their first flying class most people thought that Neville and Harry had become close friends. It wasn't quite accurate. Both Harry and Neville enjoyed silence and with Neville somehow correctly attributing his improvement in class to Harry he had chosen to act as a partial shield for Harry from the generally nosy student population. Harry was thankful and put that little bit more effort into assisting Neville with his spell work and potion making. Soon Hermione started to ask for permission to join them in practicing potions in advance of the class. It had been an interesting turn around as initially she had been appalled that they would risk brewing potions unsupervised and had even threatened to tell the teachers until Harry pointed out that it wasn't against the rules. After two weeks of seeing both Harry's and Neville's potions continually turn out perfect even when working individually she had apologised and pleaded to be included. Neither Harry nor Neville were one to hold a grudge and Hermione was soon preparing potions to a similar level of quality much to Professor Snape's disappointment. After pointing out a few key things about the study that should have been included in the class the rest of the Gryffindors also started to improve however Harry wasn't keen to include them in their small potions study group. He hadn't come to school to teach. So Neville and Hermione took on responsibility for passing on some of the things that Harry taught them.

**- There is no try -**

Harry moved quickly to pick up the broomstick that Neville was about to call to his hand. "Madam Hooch. Is it safe to ride a broomstick with such a large crack?"

Madam Hooch snatched the broomstick out of Harry's hand and glared at it. "Another wrecked, now we don't even have enough for the class."

Harry shrugged, "I don't mind taking turns with Neville. If he doesn't mind."

Neville was quick to agree.

"Okay. Well. Fine. Well spotted there Mr Potter. Five points to Gryffindor for preventing someone riding such a dangerously damaged broom."

Harry found riding the broom quite enjoyable and he pictured the dog fighting within the Star Wars and wished he could get access to a decent one. He could feel the aged and damaged charms on the brooms and was surprised that the school hadn't replaced them long ago. He followed the exercises and watched with amusement at the few that attempted to push their brooms beyond their capability.

The session went quickly and without event though he did notice at two separate times both Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape glancing out of castle windows and expressing some surprise at what Harry considered a fairly uneventful class.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

**- There is no try -**

The following month moved along quickly. Neville continued to keep Harry company during meals and breaks, and Hermione frequently joined them when they were working on homework or potions. Harry was already brewing potions well in advance of those set by the book though Hermione often pursed her lips in momentary disapproval when Harry announced they would be brewing a second or third level potion. She probably would have been even more disapproving if she had realized that Harry was building up quick a good stockpile of potions all thanks to Neville having been granted private access to two of the greenhouses and Harry's willingness to sneak the rarer ingredients out of Professor Snapes stores. He was filling in the gaps in the collection he had started at home. That both Hermione and Neville's skill with potions improved by leaps and bounds due to Harry's seemingly chaotic selection of potions to practice on was just a lucky coincidence. Translating what he felt through the force as he added ingredients to visual, auditory and olfactory clues so he could explain why he made minor modifications to the recipes to Neville and Hermione meant they were already unwittingly learning and understanding things not generally taught till Newts level. The slightest amount of force persuasion meant that the lessons he taught would not be forgotten.

Harry also finally had a minor breakthrough with transfiguration. Though it was nothing more than succeeding in transfiguring a match to a needle without using his wand he was incredibly pleased. It was the first step and though it didn't immediately lead to anything else he was sure that eventually he would find the key that would let his skills leap ahead like it had with charms and potions. In Transfiguration he acted like a normal student, the spells were easy but he spent so much time trying to understand how they work that he did only fractionally better than anyone else.

In charms Professor Flitwick was now setting him little side projects to keep him interested as he had already shown that the set material was just too easy for him. Near perfect recall, excellent muscle and vocal control and the ability to feel the magic as he and others cast spells made simple charms effortless.

Harry was sitting off to the side of the room nose buried in one of Professor Flitwick personal books on advanced charms, a book that he wasn't allowed to remove from the classroom, when he noted the level of tension on the other side of the room suddenly increase. Just as the bell rang he looked up to spot a distressed looking Hermione shoving her books in her bag. Leaving behind a red faced Ron she rushed out through the nearby door. Much to Flitwick's delight, with a single wave of his wand Harry returned Professor Flitwick's book and packed his bag. Harry didn't notice as he was already dodging and gently pushing his way through the students to catch up with Neville, "What happened to Hermione?"

Neville was frowning and felt a mixture of distress, concern and anger, "Ron. He was having trouble with the levitation charm and Hermione tried to help him. Ron took it badly, said a few things, she replied and then he got real nasty. Made a few comments about her looks and family."

Harry frowned and looked ahead but couldn't see Hermione. He decided he would sit next to her and calm her down in Transfiguration, but after following the rest of the Gryffindors into the classroom he discovered that she wasn't there. Frowning but unsure where she might be he paid scant attention to the class, idly transfiguring his coaster to plate and back not noticing Professor McGonagall's surprise. He didn't even notice her narrowed eyes when after asking everyone to try converting it to a lid, well beyond most of their capabilities, he did so without thinking about it. He was too busy looking at the door and hoping that Hermione had gone to the hospital wing for a calming or soothing potion. The spells were pretty basic for him, it was doing it using the force that was proving to be difficult.

By the time the bell had finished ringing Harry was already quick footing it to the hospital only to be disappointed to find that she had not turned up there. He returned to the common room just as everyone was leaving for the Halloween feast. Asking around he discovered she was not in her dorm room either. Now rather worried and being trailed by a now equally concerned Neville he reached the great hall. Harry asked around and soon learnt that Hermione was crying in one of the bathrooms. He was just getting up to go find her when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall. His face was a mask of terror but Harry could only sense anticipation and excitement coming from the dark tainted man.

"Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know." he gasped quite loudly before falling into a fake faint as the hall exploded into an uproar. Harry frowned, he was pretty sure that Quirrell wasn't faking about there being a troll. In fact if anything he seemed gleeful to be able to announce the truth. Letting his instincts guide him he dashed towards a side door to the great hall.

Harry was already through the door by the time Dumbledore's spell brought the rest of the hall into silence and he barely heard the instruction as he was started up the stairs taking them two at a time as he headed towards the bathroom the girls had mentioned Hermione was in. He was vaguely aware of Neville's heavy footsteps as he trailed behind.

As he approached the door he could smell something bad nearby but using his force perception he confirmed that Hermione was alone inside the bathroom. He could tell she was standing by the basins so didn't pause but just yelled out as he neared the room, "Hermione. I'm coming in."

"What? Harry you can't come in here." Hermione's face was still wet from where she had been washing it and her eyes were still very red as she looked up in surprise as he entered at a run.

"Quirrell's let a troll into the castle. We need to get out of here."

"What? but that's.."

She was interrupted by Neville coming panting into the bathroom, "It's coming this way."

Harry frowned and drew his wand, "Okay. Get away from the door Neville. Let's hope it'll go past." However as soon as he said it he felt the presence of the troll outside and he knew it was focused on the same door that he was looking at.

A moment later the door was kicked off its hinged and the massively ugly creature stuck its huge stupid face in. A childish toothy smile broke across its face when it spotted Harry, Neville and Hermione and it shuffled into the room damaging what was left of the doorway as it squeezed through. As it lifted its massive club Harry intoned "Wingardium Leviosa" but he pushed no power into his wand, instead he used the force to grasp the massive club and swing it up and backwards as fast and as hard as he could. It was a classic disarming technique pushing the weapon back on the wielders grip, made more effective by aiming it so that the heavy end slammed into the troll's face.

The troll gave a faint surprised grunt and collapsed mere seconds after it had entered the room. Hermione's scream cut off almost as quickly as it has started. Harry realized he hadn't even noticed that. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself and turned to find himself slammed into and then wrapped up in a massive hug from the bushy haired girl. A second later he was released and Neville was the one being wrapped up in a hug. Harry smiled slightly when he noticed that Neville received a longer hug and that both Hermione's and Neville's emotions went into overdrive before she reluctantly released her grip on the blushing boy.

Giving Hermione a moment to splash water onto her face Harry's mind was trying to decide what to do about Quirrell when he felt three human presences coming towards them quickly. A worried McGonagall entered through the open doorway first with a limping and irritated Snape right behind her and then an angry and frustrated Quirrell right behind him though his expression just showed worry. Harry carelessly caught Quirrell's eyes, still angry with the man for letting the troll in and though he quickly cleared his thoughts and expression, the surprise that Quirrell suddenly felt told him that he hadn't been quick enough.

Noticing that Hermione was preparing to lie he put that less immediate problem to the side and quickly answered McGonagall's question, "As soon as Professor Quirrell mentioned the troll I remembered that Hermione was in the bathroom so Neville and I rushed here to find and bring her back to the great hall. Were we meant to go to the dormitory? We weren't going to go near the dungeons."

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, "Well... in that case… please explain what happened then?"

Neville spoke up, "Harry used Wingardium Leviosa to hit the troll with its own club. Is it dead?"

Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes at Harry, "I heard you were a deft hand at charms. Well done then. Ten points to Gryffindor for both of you boys actions though next time I would ask that you speak to a teacher or a prefect rather than running around when a monster is loose in the castle and no, it's not dead. Just unconscious. Now since you all look to be in fine health back to your dormitory with you."

Harry noted that the eyes of all three adults were watching him as he led the others away.

**- There is no try -**

Harry decided he needed to deal with Quirrell quickly before anyone else was put at risk but he still had no idea how or if he should approach any of the other Professors with the problem. For some reason they were unable to detect the dark presence that was with him almost all of the time now. Even when the presence wasn't there it left behind a stain on Quirrell. Even though he had felt a variety of emotions from Quirrell such as fear and revulsion to the presence he had not once felt a sense that Quirrell was trying to fight against it on any level confirming to Harry that he was a willing host.

Over the next few days a few experiments with unsuspecting ghosts and Peeves confirmed Harry's belief that a force wall that affect gasses could also affect insubstantial creatures. It had been amusing watching a fleeing Peeves bounce off what to him seemed like a suddenly solid wall. However he had no way of knowing if it would affect the dark presence in the same way nor did he have any solution on how to force it to separate from Quirrell. The force wall would fail if he tried to use it to push the spirit out of Quirrell. He wasn't powerful enough to create a wall that would affect solid objects. He enchanted a small potion bottle to be as unbreakable and as impermeable as he could make it in case he managed to encounter the dark presence alone.

At the end of his very next defence class Quirrell spoke up just as the bell rang, "Mr.. P.. P.. Potter. Wait a mo.. moment p..p.. please."

Harry calmed his emotions as he turned back from the door. Quirrell's wand was not out and he didn't sense any immediate danger though the man was holding back a lot of suppressed anger. This could go bad quickly but Harry had no intention of running away.

As the door swung closed Quirrell strode forward till he was only a couple of steps from Harry. The nearness of the dark presence was sickening but Harry did his best not to react.

"Well Mr Potter. What do you have to say for yourself? What do you know about that troll?"

Harry blinked, he hadn't expected the stutter to be fake though in hindsight it did make sense. He momentarily considered pretending to be an ignorant student but he doubted it would work and it would leave him on the defensive.

He spoke clearly and used a tiny amount of force to emphasize his words, "I know that you let it in and I'm sure I'll soon know why. I expect the other teachers have almost reached the same conclusion that I have."

Harry was pleased to feel confusion and fear begin to bloom within Quirrell but before it could take hold a tidal wave of aggression from the dark taint washed over Quirrell and the fear and confusion were replaced by a berserk anger. Quicker than Harry believed Quirrell was cable of the Professor's hands snapped out reaching for Harry's neck but Harry had always had good reflexes and his personal and martial arts training over the past few years had just seen them improve. He easily avoided the grasp by stepping to the side and his hands deflecting and then grasping Quirrell's right hand in tight twisting grip. Before Quirrell was even aware that things had gone wrong Harry twisted his torso and took a half step back forcing Quirrell his knees. Harry kept twisting till Quirrell's right arm was twisted back under his elbow on to his back. Quirrell flailed ineffectually a few times with his left hand before he started screaming.

Harry paused, he was sure he wasn't putting that much pressure on his arm and yet he could tell through the force that Quirrell was not faking agony. Then he noticed that Quirrell's hand was now a deep blood red and was continuing to darken and spread out from where his hands tightly held him.

Shocked Harry released Quirrell's hand and took a few steps back. He heard a banging at the door and Neville's and Hermione voices yelling out but he didn't take his eyes off Quirrell.

"Master it burns…. why does it burn? Master please…"

A voice that wasn't the Professors replied seemingly from within Quirrells turban, it was high pitched but still distinctively male and seemed to breath with a mixture of authority and disgust, "Just kill the boy and be done with it you fool."

Quirrell fumbled a bit but quickly had his wand in his unburned left hand but before he could bring it around Harry darted forward and kicked Quirrell's feet out from underneath him. As the man toppled Harry continued past him grasped his left hand with one hand as his other nimbly snatched the wand from it. As he released the hand he noted that it too started to darken, darkening red marks showing where his fingers and thumb had gripped it.

"Master I can't.. he took my wand…" Quirrell's was terrified.

"You worthless fool, uncover me so I can see him before you die."

"But Master you promised…" Quirrell's voice took on a whining pleading tone.

"Uncover me or I'll make your death more painful than you could ever imagine." The voice seemed to drip with venom.

Quirrell struggled to his knees and lifted his blackened and burnt looking hands to his turban. The fingers of his right hand no longer were working so he just used his wrists to batter the turban off groaning and moaning the whole time.

Harry had taken a few steps back and had withdrawn his small vial from his backpack. He could feel that this was about to come to an end.

Quirrell twisted his body awkwardly so he was facing away from Harry. The skin of his neck had started to darken and the veins across the side of his head had already turned black. Framed by those veins was a truly that awful face seemingly merged with the back of Quirrell's head. It was chalk white with snake like slits for nostrils and a thin almost lipless mouth. Glaring red eyes fixed at Harry as the face spoke.

"You have set me back again boy. But you can't kill me. I am Lord Voldemort and I am immortal. Look upon your death. Soon I will return and I will take your soul and torture it forever."

With that the face seemed to fall in on itself leaving a ghastly hole in the back of Quirrell's head. As the darkening body collapsed a black shadow leapt out and shot towards Harry only to flatten as hit an invisible wall.

The face suddenly reappeared amongst the smoke and clawed hands reached forward to scrabble ineffectually against the wall. Then it darted to the side to discover that wall was no longer flat but had become the inner curve of a sphere. The face opened its mouth unnaturally wide in a unheard scream but Harry paid it no heed. He had already brought his hands up into a claw shape and he was squeezing his focus given only to the task ahead of him. The slowly ball shrunk as the black shadow darted back and forth within seeking a way out.

A loud voice from outside demanding what was going on alerted Harry to the fact he didn't have much time left. He pushed harder, calling upon the force and even some of the complex magic from everything nearby to help him as he forced the ball to shrink quicker and quicker. He barely noticed as the darkness within the now small sphere seemed to shiver and then diminish as it was forced smaller and smaller. The darkness was denser but not as dense as he expected. As the door opened he gave a gasp, forced the ball down to a marble sized sphere and quickly scooped it up with the vial. He had just capped it and tucked it away when the door opened and he fell to his knees exhausted beyond anything he had experienced before. He noted that Snape had just entered as he let the darkness take him.

**- There is no try -**

Harry slowly came back to consciousness. He had been moved, had his clothing changed and been placed in a bed. Opening his eyes he found himself in the infirmary. A quick self check told him that his energy levels were already well on their way to full recovery. He paused for a moment as he noted that once again his core had become denser, more solid and more powerful. He frowned, once again he had taken onboard some of the the power from what he had defeated, he wondered just how powerful he could make himself before he realized those thoughts were the type that could lead to madness. Had he been subverted to the dark side without even noticing it? Hopefully not, he hadn't planned to take the power for himself. He would have to meditate on this.

"Good afternoon, Harry." said a deep friendly voice.

Harry looked up and around to find and meet the Headmasters twinkling eyes.

"Professor Dumbledore…. What happened?"

Dumbledore's smile faded a little, "Well my boy. It seems that Professor Quirrell had unfortunately been possessed by a dark spirit whose departure left the poor professor bereft of life. What can you tell me about what happened?"

Harry blinked and made sure all his shields were in place and his thoughts were well separated, "Eh.. well.. after class Professor Quirrell asked me to stay. He seemed to think I knew that he had let the troll in and had stopped it to thwart his plans. I'm not sure what plans he was talking about though. Anyhow he grabbed me and suddenly his hands started to go all red and black. Then there was this real ugly face at the back of his head telling me I would pay for my interference before it disappeared and Quirrell fell down. There was this dark shadow rushing towards me and then I work up here. Is he really dead."

"I'm afraid so. Is there anything else you can remember?"

Harry felt a gentle probe of his mind and let Dumbledore see the memory of Quirrell falling and the darkness rushing forward him. He ended the memory before the shadow hit the invisible wall.

"Umm.. I don't think so. Do you know what the shadow thing was?"

Dumbledore nodded slowly and gave Harry a reassuring smile, "I believe from the magic left in the classroom that the dark spirit you encountered was Voldemort Harry. He is not as dead as we had hoped. He's fled the castle now so you are safe for the moment but if you see anything unusual or anything unusual happens you should let me know as soon as you can."

Harry nodded, "Yes, sir." Internally he was wondering what Dumbledore was hiding, the man's internal emotions were a mess and yet he was so calm on the surface to be almost unbelievable.

"How long have I been here?" Harry asked to fill in the slight pause though he already knew perfectly well. It was a minor ability to keep accurate track of time even when asleep or unconscious but still quite useful for making sure one woke up on time.

"Just a few hours Harry. Mr Longbottom and Miss Granger are just outside waiting for you. If Madam Pomfrey gives you the all clear I see no reason for you not to make the end of dinner. I'm truly glad to see that the events today have done you no permanent harm,"

**- There is no try -**

It was a couple of weeks later when Harry made his way to his normal running track in the early morning. But today he wasn't running, no, he had an evil spirit to dispose of.

Finding his way to a small clearing he sat cross legged and pulled out the small unbreakable vial that contained what was left of Voldemort's soul.

He was thankful that he now understood why the spell that Voldemort had used on him when he was just a baby gave him the ability to absorb Voldemort's power and by doing do destroy the soul fragment. It was Voldemort's own magic that he used to steal magic from the innocent that had been turned against him and with Voldemort's death there would no one's whose core would match in the same way and the ability would be lost. Harry had been pleased to learn this. The magic only worked by changing the victim's magical core to resonate with the caster's and only worked when the victim had a barely developed core. It was highly illegal and very dark magic and as it usually only gave the caster a small amount of magic few dark wizards used it. There were more efficient though equally dark ways to gain power. It seems however that Voldemort never missed an opportunity to add even the smallest amount of power to his own.

The end result was that Voldemort had left his mark on Harry's magical core though there seemed to be no taint associated with that. As for if it had anything to do with his connection to the force, he couldn't tell. What he had determined was that Voldemort's actions that night had made him a much more powerful wizard than he would have been otherwise.

With a sigh he looked down at the small vial and wished there was some better way to dispose of the soul than what he was about to do, but whatever dark magic Voldemort had cast in an attempt to achieve immortality had caused all of the spells he had found for dismissing a lost soul to fail.

Opened his senses to the uncomplicated force signatures of the living things around him he started pulling it in. It was much easier to call on the force from living creatures rather than magical sources such as the castle even if the magic of the castle was so much stronger. In the castle he had to fight against the design of the magic to repurpose is. Out here the force seemed willing to assist any who called upon it.

Once again he created the massive invisible sphere above him in an effort to push as much power through his core as he could. He soon noticed first with happiness which soon turned to concern that he was able to reduce the sphere to a quarter of its original size before he started to feel any strain. He was going to need to meditate a lot after this, it would do him no good to start to enjoy his new power.

When sphere reached tennis ball sized and the strain was forcing his body to shake uncontrollably he popped the lid of the vial and reached in to call upon the magic locked within to assist him. It tried to fight but the connection between his core and the magic was too strong and soon all the magic within had flowing through him and into the force sphere. There was a long drawn out scream and the vial was empty. Harry allowed the sphere to slowly regain its original size before he slumped backwards. After a few deep breaths to centre himself he started the long slow walk back to his dorm and a well deserved shower.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author Note**: Lot of people have asked "is Voldemort dead and gone?" My answer is, "not quite". But Voldie isn't the only issue that this Harry has to deal with. I like to mix things up a bit and I'm not holding back this time. Canon is just a 'what could have happened' for this story. _

_Thanks to everyone reading along and all the reviews. Love all the comments whatever their length. I've already been influenced by more than a few of the ideas I've read. I do make an effort to reply via pm to all the reviews so feel free to ask questions there. Apologies if I miss replying to the occasional review. Thanks also to those who have provided corrections. I've hopefully fixed them all now. Keep them coming. _

_Also don't expect a lot of author notes, this mid year one should be a rarity._

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**Chapter 6**

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**- There is no try -**

The following potions class Harry noticed that the mark on Snape's forearm was weaker. It clarified two things for him, it confirmed that it was indeed the mark showing of him having been one of Voldemort's followers, and two and, since it was still present, that there must be more fragments of Voldemort somewhere. He had found and removed two so far. One from himself and one from Quirrell. He wondered how many other people were similarly possessed or afflicted like he had been. Since encountering Voldemort on the back of Quirrell's head he had done some a lot of reading and research and had learnt the Voldemort's followers were known as Death Eaters, strange considering the rough translation of Voldemort in French. The followers eat death whilst the leaders runs from it. But he had yet to find any information on where he came from. He had sounded British but that could easily be explained away.

He also had a feeling that Snape's overall power level had fallen slightly. How much or how significant that was he wasn't so certain off and he determined to make closer note of any changes when he dealt with the next piece of Voldemort's soul. Now that he knew what he was looking for he didn't expect it to be too difficult to recognise the next possessed person.

Still he thought it would be advisable to improve his force perception skills and it was through his efforts in relations to this that his attention was once more brought back to Ron's rat and the two faint dark taints that followed it around. Though he wasn't expecting it he wasn't so surprised that when he finally managed to catch more than a glimpse at one of the two taints that it had a distinct connection to Voldemort's signature. It wasn't the same but it was connected. He had long since given up believing in coincidence, both magical evidence and the Jedi way indicated that coincidence was a just a name given when the connection between events was just unknown or even unknowable to the observer. Everything was connected.

With too many questions without answers he decided to approach Ron in the common room one Sunday afternoon. Ron was playing a game of chess with one of his older brothers and was more relaxed then that at any times so Harry judged it the best time to strike up a casual conversation.

"Hello Ron, Percy. Mind if I sit with you guys for a moment?"

Not hearing any argument Harry sat and watched the game for a few minutes until the immediate shock of his appearance had faded from their consciousness.

"How old is your rat, Ron? Getting along in years?"

Ron peered down at his rat which was currently lounging in his robe pocket occasionally wiggling its back as it worked its way into a more comfortable position, "Scabbers? ehh.. well I got him at the beginning of this year but Percy has had him for.. I don't know… how many years Percy?"

Percy frowned and rubbed his chin with his thumb as he considered it, "End of 81. I remember it was a bit after by fifth birthday and well.. you know who… anyhow.. it wasn't long after that night. Sorry Harry. So that would make him at least ten years old, but he wasn't a newborn at the time, pretty much a full grown rat so dad told me later. Dad didn't think he would last that long. We were a bit tight on presents that year so I considered him a late birthday present when I found him. Dad told me that's the reason why he let me keep him. Dad didn't think he was magical but I guess ten plus years means he was wrong on that count. Old rat now eh Scabbers, though you don't look all that different from when I first found you."

Harry was watching Scabbers the rat with keen interest. He had only been idly curious about the rat itself until he had noticed all too human emotion of concern coming from it as Percy spoke. That was very unusual. The fact that the concern continued to grow the more Percy spoke was rather enlightening.

"Magical you say, so he understands what you say?"

Both Ron and Percy shook their heads though Percy was the one to respond, "Not that I ever noticed. He's tough but pretty lazy, knows what foods he likes and regularly disappears for a day or so at time. Never managed to work out where he goes off to. Dad tried putting a few tracking charms on him but they never held for more than a day."

Harry was the only one not surprised when Scabbers suddenly sprung from Ron's pocket and started dodging between the feet of nearby students.

"Hey. What the! Scabbers get back here!" Ron lept up sending half the chess pieces flying.

As Ron vanished after Scabbers Percy frowned, "Wow. I've never seen him move so fast. That was too weird."

Percy shrugged and started directing the pieces to resume their positions.

Harry nodded his thanks and stood up keeping his eye on both Scabbers and Ron, who was still chasing the nimble rat. He wasn't worried about catching Scabbers now, and in fact it would make it easier if he got away from Ron. He had a good fix on the rats signature and he didn't want to be seen catching it.

**- There is no try -**

Harry was getting tired. It turned out that being rat sized meant there were a lot more shortcuts available to you within the castle and the rat seemed to know them all. If it wasn't for the fact that the Rat was continually moving closer towards the outer walls he would have wondered if he was being given the run around on purpose, twice now he had been forced to backtrack all the way to the central stairwell to get back on the trail of the rat.

The one positive outcome was that it really was putting his force sensitivity skills to the test. After finding a narrow staircase heading in roughly the right direction and he wasted no time leaping on to the banister and sliding down his arms stretched out for balance as his shoes slid down the smooth stone banister. He forwarded somersaulted at the end to avoid the finial at the end, came down into a roll and sprung back up into a jog without losing any significant momentum. He keep moving as he once again searched for the rat's signature. He found it closer than before but now on the other side of a rather thick stone wall. Suddenly he realised the significance of the wall he was running towards, it was the outer wall and the rat was outside and he was still inside and not near any outer doors.

Looking around he spotted a narrow window three meters higher than him but near enough a corner that he was accessible. It was not much more than a horizontal skylight at the end of a narrow cutout from the wall but it was the best option if he wanted a chance to catch the rat. He adjusted his course and sped up as he rushed towards the solid wall beneath the window. Kicking off the opposite wall he used momentum plus a small force push to be able to take two steps up the adjoining wall. From the second step he kicked off towards the outer wall, back flipped and landed gracefully on his toes on the inner lip of the narrow and deep window arch. A quick charm and the small window was open. Without thinking about it he twisted and dived through the gap sideways sucking in his stomach as he did so. It was a close fit and he felt both his nose and the back of his head brush against the window frame. Next time he would turn his head as well.

Then he was outside, free falling three stories above a small outer courtyard near the greenhouses. It was the highest he had ever attempted a fall from but Harry gave that the merest thought as he plotted his trajectory. He twisted back to horizontal and tucked his body into a small ball. Two forward flips and he pushed out with the force and turned his landing into a smooth roll from which he sprung back to his feet but after taking a few steps he slowed. He had lost the rat's signature during the dive. He would need to work on that.

The many signatures of the magical plants in the nearby greenhouses caused him some consternation and it was a few minutes till he finally reaquired his target, but as he started running he realized something was different. It was moving a lot faster than it was before. Much faster than a rat should have been capable of, and the signature was bigger, man sized. Harry increased his speed into a full force boosted sprint but as he passed the last greenhouse he had to slow and duck almost immediately as a stunner shot through where his head had been a second before.

He spotted the figure fifty meters away and moving at near a full sprint. Harry wondered for a moment if that shot had been due to skill or just pure luck. A second stunner that he was only just able to dodge cleared that question up. The rat man was a good shot and his stunners moved very fast. Harry fired off a few stunners himself as he picked up speed again but the rat man just swatted them away without slowing. He was definitely an experienced dueler but he wasn't as fast as a force boosted Harry and now that Harry was ready for them he was able to dodge the next two stunners without slowing. The distance between them was closing quickly when the man cast a wave of fire towards Harry. This slowed him a lot as after Harry forward flipped over it he was forced to awkwardly dodge another stunner when he landed.

Next the rat man conjured a thick wall of wind which was too wide and high for Harry to easily avoid. Harry tried pushing through it but it was tough going and he was losing ground too quickly. He knew of no magic with which to dispel it so he tried something new and called upon the force to create a thin tube through the turbulent air and then widened it enough so that he could dive through. Instinct told him to side step and he narrowly avoided a bright run slash of light.

"Little Harry, always so full of surprises. Did you remember me or was it something else that gave me away?"

Harry glanced at the short man with grubby skin and a pointed nose. He certainly did have the look of a rat about him and Harry wondered if that was a lingering effect of whatever spell had transformed him.

"Who are you?" he asked not answering the man's question.

The man was confused then bemused, "You don't know? How interesting. Just coincidence then. I thought maybe you had remembered something from when you were a baby. We did play together occasional afterall. Still, the dog was always your favorite, maybe you remember him. You've grown up a lot Little Harry, it's a pity it won't be for much longer. You've forced me from my hidey hole so I'll have to find my master now. I knew it was coming and was hoping to delay it a little longer. Still…"

Harry spoke clearly and with power, "You will tell me your name."

"Peter P… ohh.. that's a neat trick. Still I think you'll be able to work out the rest for yourself. It's time to say goodbye." The man raised his empty hand and gave Harry a little wave.

"You won't find him you know. He's gone, he possessed Quirrell but he didn't survive what I did to him." Harry took a step forward. The man was close enough that even if he tried to run Harry could catch him easily. Harry was good at quick starts.

Peter looked at his raised arm with a slight shrug, "I did wonder when the mark faded. I still check it every few days. He'll never be truly gone, I at least know that sad truth. But you do make it sound like he needs more time to regain his strength. I guess I have time to find some new allies first then. Must be going. Tootles little Harry."

The man turned and Harry thought he was about to try running again when there was a faint pop and he vanished. Harry froze halfway to taking step forward instantly realizing what had just happened. He had read about it but never seen it. The man, Peter P, had apparated. No wonder he had stopped to chat they had reached the edge of the wards and Harry hadn't noticed.

Frustrated and irritated at his mistake. He realized should have taken the rat during the night when it was asleep or not stop moving to chat till the man was wandless. He had been so sure that he had the situation under control. He still had much to learn.

**- There is no try -**

Harry looked down at the third and final reply. It was no good, they weren't going to take an eleven year old seriously. It didn't matter that his godfather hadn't been given a trial and the evidence had been as flimsy as anything. There was no such thing as due process in the wizarding world. He had learnt that by the end of the same week in which he had learnt that wizards and witches were real.

Sirius Black was obviously innocent of most if not all of the charges against him and was now suffering and possibly insane due to his unjust imprisonment. The fact that from everything he had read pointed to the prison being totally inhumane and something Harry wouldn't wish on his worst enemy just made it all the worse. Even without his godfather been imprisoned Harry knew he would have felt compelled to bring that forsaken place to the ground once he had learned of it. It was everything that a Jedi should stand against.

Harry had a new and much more important purpose. The remnants of Voldemort could wait, even Pettigrew's capture could wait. He needed to find a way to rescue his godfather.

Harry made his apologies to Ron for causing Scabbers to run away. Ron just shrugged it off not thinking that Harry's could possibly have had anything to do with in. Ron and Percy agreed that must have just been coincidence. Harry didn't argue the point.

Harry also read up on animagus transformations and decided it would be something that he would definitely have to learn more about when his transfiguration skills improved. Transfiguration was still his weakest subject, certainly he was performing beyond everyone bar Hermione in class but in his other subjects his ability to supplement his magic with the force meant he was consistently and purposefully performing well below his capabilities, in transfiguration he really was doing as well as he could.

Christmas came and Harry as he always did took a well needed rest from his force training. He spent two weeks as the most normal eleven year old that he could imagine. He slept in, he only exercised once a day and without the assistance of the force. He went to the movies and arcades with Dudley. Had fun shopping with his Aunt and even enjoyed the weekend spent visiting Aunt Marge. Though in that instance he cheated a little and used a small amount of force persuasion so that he wasn't bothered by her and her dogs.

He received and sent presents to his school mates and was surprised to receive an invisible cloak with an unsigned note, obviously from Dumbledore. It opened up his eyes to a new side of magic as the magical signature that surrounded it was much simple and more elegant than anything else he had examined in Hogwarts or Diagon Alley. He almost broke his promise to have a rest from his force powers so tempted was he to spend time examining it thoroughly. But in the end he put it aside planning to properly examine it once he returned to Hogwarts.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

**- There is no try -**

Turlough O'Berne was a fountain of interesting and useful information and was a great teacher whose ability to pass that information on was only somewhat hindered he his overly superstitious behaviour. There was not a single class where he didn't refer in at least three different ways the fact that he was only going to be at Hogwarts for less than a year and the fact that he was only there because he owed Dumbledore two times. There was salt thrown, absolutely no familiars especially cats allowed in or even near his office or class room. He wouldn't go near the owlery. He had good luck charms including glowing crystals, abraxan sized horseshoes, rabbit feet, four and seven leaf clovers and a variety of other things that were not so easily recognised hanging around the classroom. His strong accent was a challenge at times but no one complained except in jest after the first couple of weeks, he was very popular.

Harry was no longer holding back in that class and Professor O'Berne was soon calling on him for a lot of his demonstrations. Harry didn't mind at all as it gave him an in to asking about more advanced topics, such as dealing with dementors.

Harry didn't believe that anything could possibly be unkillable but without access to a Dementor there was no way to know from which angle to attack that particular problem. So he went with what he already knew and put all his effort into learning everything.

Harry, after a few nights and a lot of meditation, discovered that his patronus was a majestic eagle. However, initially, summoning it took a lot out of him. Magical exhaustion was very different from force exhaustion and tended to leave him drained for most of a day rather than just a few hours. He even managed to lose gryffindor twenty points the day after he first successfully cast his Patronus because he fell asleep in potions. None of his classmates complained though, losing points to Snape, even when it was actually his fault, wasn't that uncommon and Harry had already earned the second most in his year for his house. If you excluded those points lost in potions he had actually earned more than Hermione. She was still willing and able to answer every question though, after a few suggestions, she was no longer always the first to put up her hand. Still if no one else knew or someone got it wrong she was always ready with the correct answer.

Though he would have liked to have more time to spend on preparing for his next major undertaking he still considered the time spent in most of his classes well spent. He only had issues with a couple. History was bearable as he treated just like a set study period. Charms was excellent, in exchange for assisting the other students for half the class Flitwick continued to provide him advanced material and pointers. Flitwick had even rewarded Harry for his help with the slowest students by setting aside time for a two hour private session every third Saturday during which Harry was able to push the limits of his understanding even further.

Transfiguration was his most challenging subject and though Professor McGonagall only spared a few minutes each class to answer Harry's more esoteric questions on theory the class material was hard enough that just working on perfecting that material was time well spent. Herbology was similar, the hands on experience was valuable and, since students were allowed to chat about the topic during class, there was the bonus that Neville often choose that time to pass on some of the amazing little facts he had picked up through all his personal reading and private lessons.

On the other hand Astronomy Harry considered a waste of time and a disruption to his sleeping patterns. At least three three quarters of class was pointless and the rest too slow paced. After learning the theory regarding how the position of the earth, moon, sun and other planets affected certain plants, creatures and spells it turned into a pointless exercise in rote memorization and laborious calculations that would have been much better handled by the magical slide rules that they were only allowed to use to check their answers. At least it was only once a week unlike potions with its one double length practical and two theory slash reading classes that were a massive waste of valuable time. Snape wouldn't hear of anyone working ahead or modifying their potions from the standard recipes. Not prior to Newts anyhow, and Harry found it near impossible to not read from the set text with Snape looking over his shoulder every five to ten minutes looking for an excuse to dock points. Even Neville no longer got much use out of the class. For a while it had been good practice for him to create the potions in a stressful environment but Neville had already moved beyond being intimidated by Snape and both he and Hermione had all of the first and half of the second year potions perfected and spent their study sessions with Harry or much more interesting and complex challenges.

Harry was concerned that at his pace within a couple of years he would be too far ahead of the rest of his class for it to be useful to keep attending Hogwarts and yet the law said he needed attend till he was at least fifteen and had passed a minimum of three owls. Neville was pushing for Harry to put more of his time towards assisting the other students in their year but till Sirius was free Harry refused to be distracted from his set goal. No one realized just how dedicated to Harry was.

**- There is no try -**

It was mid April, and still incredibly cold, when Harry finally decided he was as ready and waiting any longer would become counterproductive. Also the timing worked for a number of reasons. The weather didn't bother him so much, a mild warming charm on top of his now innate resistance to cold allowed him to barely notice the sub-zero temperatures. He had packed a selection of very thick muggle style adult clothes within his space expanded backpack all charmed to be resizable, comfortable, warm and waterproof. The space expansion charm on the backpack was a useful bonus of what he hoped would be the key to the success of his mission.

He also carried with him a large selection of his potions, many carefully organised within space expanded belt pockets but most stored in his backpack in small padded sacks. He had loaned a pair of brooms from a couple of the older students and hoped he would be able to return them intact. He had already set aside funds on the oft chance they didn't survive or he had to abandon them. He had a backup plan in place if they failed but it wouldn't be a comfortable trip and would be much slower. Using the force to reduce air friction the brooms he had borrowed would be able to hit eighty miles an hour, meaning the trip to the middle of the North Sea was going to take around three hours. A long journey but one that could conceivably mean he could get there and back in a single night.

Harry went to bed immediately after an early dinner on Friday having already had both Neville and Hermione promise not to look for him tomorrow, or ask any teachers about him. He hoped to be back before dawn, but had put in place the contingency plan to allow him a few extra hours before he was missed, just in case. It had taken a gentle force suggestion to finally convince Hermione to stop lecturing him about responsible behaviour. If she had known even half of what he was planning to do he doubted even his strongest force suggestion would have worked.

At nine pm he awoke and quickly and quietly dressed. The dorm was conveniently empty with his housemates likely still down in the common room. So he exited via the closest window, his invisibility cloak wrapped tightly around him and his broom disillusioned. At the edge of the wards he used the force to suppress his magical signature. To the wards he was just another bird and no one within the castle was alerted that a student was leaving the grounds. Once well clear he cast a few spells to make his trip a little faster and more comfortable and tried to enter a mild meditative state as he pushed the broom to and then beyond its maximum listed speed. After a few minutes he decided he should have purchased some goggles. Quarter of an hour later he mentally kicked himself and transfigured one of the many marbles he carried into a pair.

The journey was long, but the slight meditation trance he finally managed to enter allowed him to remain alert and focused. He kept fairly low to the ground to avoid any chance of coming across aircraft. This was only his second flight outside of Hogwarts and the first had only been a short test flight out to Hogsmeade and back to make sure his method for bypassing the wards would work whilst airborne. He didn't want any additional complications.

**- There is no try -**

He felt the taint of darkness well before he saw the dark outline of Azkaban against dark sea. As the taint grew stronger the tiny amount of doubt that there was anything eviler than a Dementor faded away. He was never more sure that these abominations needed to be totally destroyed, and if he couldn't achieve that right now then he would at least make a start. He was now sure he was doing the right thing and trusted that the force would see him through the night.

Harry was pleased that his trick for concealing his magical signature worked just as well for bypassing the wards around Azkaban as it did around Hogwarts, though he was less pleased when his broom suddenly lost power. Levitating one's self with the force was significantly harder than lifting and moving about an object of similar weight. Having to catch himself as he fell tumbling down toward the turbulent North Sea meters from the shore took all of Harry's control. He came to a quivering halt mere feet above the top of the waves and well within reach of the salty spray from where the waves smashed against the rocky shore. Straining he half levitated half force threw himself the short distance to the shore where he collapsed heavily against a large rock to catch his breath and slow his thumping heart. He was glad that during the fall his hands and instinctively clutched harder on to the broom as if he had dropped it there was no way he would have had the presence of mind to summon it back during his fall. He decided he didn't like no-fly wards.

Shivering and wet, but unwilling to risk casting a drying spell within the strong outer wards, he stowed the broom away in his backpack before carefully working his way over and up the rocks towards the fortress perched on the rocky bluff. The ancient weather blasted stone walls of the fortress provided a plentitude of holds and he easily climbed up to a small barred window. The ancient rock and rusted metal was no match for the force and he easily bent and twisted the bars from their housing before entering and replacing the bars.

He had just completed concealing his entrance when he met his first dementor. The dark taint was so prevalent that the signature of a single dementor was nearly impossible to distinguish over it and it was only the adding anticipation of feeding that he felt via the force that alerted Harry to its nearness. As he turned it loomed over him, the temperature suddenly plummeted and his wet clothes begun to freeze. Harry started hearing screaming and a terrified pleading.

He stumbled slightly and as the pain of his left knee hitting the floor woke him from his partial nightmare. "No! They're my memories. Expecto Patronum!"

Harry's eagle patronus blasted forward causing the dementor to begin to backup. But as soon as it had floated back a few feet Harry had his patronus veer away. The warmth and love flowing off the Patronus had allowed Harry to clear his mind and focus on the task ahead of him. As the dementor turned it's attention back to Harry, Harry already had his arm up and his hand and fingers forming a claw. The dementor soon hit the inner surface of the invisible cylinder that Harry had created. It struggled and clawed but Harry was relieved to see that whatever substance that made up the so called unkillable creature, it reacted to his force wall the same as ghost, poltergeists and Voldemort.

Harry begun to squeeze. Harry wasn't planning to crush the creature. He didn't even know if it was possible and had no intention of using that much energy to test it. He was already cold, tired and in need of a short rest and had lots more before he could rest properly. He just needed to contain it.

It continued to beat and clawed against its prison as Harry pulled out a squat square iron box. It had a two piece hinged top and Harry called it a dementor trap. He had even toyed with the idea of using a foot pedal to operate it but after a little testing decided that using the force to open, close and lock the thing was much simpler and less prone to problems. It was an easy matter to kick the trap underneath the trapped dementor and only a little more effort to lower the trapped cylinder down into the now open trap..

Releasing the force wall he spent a few minutes checking that the wards on the box were holding and that the dementor was well and truly locking within the expanded space within. Allowing himself a small sigh of relief he unfroze his robes and dried himself before setting to work.

**- There is no try -**

Whilst the invisibility cloak was ineffective against the dementors it worked perfectly on the living guards each of which he put into a gentle force sleep before moving to their dementor warded quarters. After two hours of capturing dementors Harry had to take a break. He hadn't realized just how many there were. By his rough count he had already trapped over seventy of the creatures, mostly two or three at a time. But there still seemed to be hundreds left, the taint had barely been reduced at all.

He returned to the guard room and made sure all the guards were all still sound asleep before he took a break and entered a healing meditation. Thirty minutes later he was searching the prison and trapping dementors again. He paused when he arrived at the cell of his godfather. Sirius Black was a mess but thankfully still alive and though his thoughts were a mess they were those of someone who was sane. He wasn't too late.

Using keys taken from guards he opened and entered the cell and gave the gaunt man a small shake sending waves of calm out as the confused man woke. A calming, a nutrient and a weak pick-me-up potion followed. He put one of the spare anti-dementor charms around his neck.

"Come along Sirius. I'm going to move you to a safer room for awhile. You need to absorb those potions and drink a few more before I can take you out of here." Harry put just a touch of force persuasion into his voice.

Sirius nodded and calmly let Harry lead him to the guards quarters where he obediently lay on one of the beds and went back to sleep. Harry spent a few minutes on an exercise he had been practicing for just this moment and was pleased when Sirius entered a healing slumber. It would only last whilst he concentrated but Sirius needed every bit of healing he could get.

Scourgify was not a pleasant way to be cleaned but it did the job and the scratches left were no worse than the rest of the injuries that he had suffered, it was followed by a rather poorly cast shaving charm that Harry promised he would apologize for later and a change of clothing thanks to the switching spell.

A quick alarm and locking charm on the door and then Harry went back to reducing the dementor population. He had already decided there was no way he could achieve his goal of emptying the prison of them, there were just too many, but he hoped to at least make a noticeable impact on the all pervasive dark taint of the place. He was moving towards the opinion that cleaning out Azkaban was more than the work of one person. He was also noticing that the Dementors were now gathering in groups larger than he was comfortable facing.

After picking off as many lone and small groups of Dementors as he could whilst make regular return trip to administer more healing potions to his godfather he judged it was time to retreat. He was tiring and finding it harder and harder to trap his targets. Also his godfather had an appointment to keep in southern Scotland. He spent the last hour of his allotted time holding Sirius in the healing slumber before waking him and dosing him with another set of potions.

It took a bit of explaining till the overly calm Sirius understood he was supposed to sit on the broom and be ready to fly before Harry force pushed him out of the no-fly zone. He then used his magic to force the broom into a hover. Once Sirius was stable Harry took a running force boosted leap out over the rocks, clearing the edge of the zone just as he started to drop. He straddled the broom mid air and pulled to a half beside the bemused looking Sirius who gave him a drunken smile, "We're flying… this is a nice dream."

"Yes, we're flying. Now I want you to relax. You can sleep and dream if you like. I'll direct your broom for you."

Sirius eyes close and immediately fell asleep. Harry gritted his teeth in anger once again as he wondered just how much damage the dementors had done to his godfathers mind. No one should be that susceptible to force suggestion. Not even his relatives would have reacted to that degree. He took a moment to clear his mind. He needn't get angry about it. He was fixing it.

**- There is no try -**

The journey was uneventful and he landed them both gently in an almost deserted shopping centre carpark on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Unwrapping the blanket from his disillusioned godfather he woke him up gently.

"Hello Sirius. Do you know who I am?"

"James? What are you doing here. Did they catch you too?"

Harry shook his head, "I'm not James Sirius. I'm Harry. You've been locked up for a long time but you're free now."

"Harry! Oh how I've missed you. Look at you. You're all grown up. But you can't be here. They'll be back soon and they'll take you away from me again."

Harry used the force to calm him down a little and gently had Sirius drink another dose of the calming potion followed by his second stomach soother. Sirius was going to be very unwell the following day but it was the only way, "Relax Sirius. We are a long way from the dementors now and I'm sending you even further away. This is Aunt Petunia. Do you remember her?"

"Hello Sirius. We didn't get along very well last time we met but I hope we can be friends now. Harry's got to go back to school so you're coming on a holiday with us. This is my husband, Vernon, and my son, Dudley." Aunt Petunia was wrapped up so tightly in her jacket that Harry could only just make out a part of her face in the fur lined hood.

Sirius gingerly shook both Vernon's and Dudley's hands before surveying the surrounding area with a bemused expression. "We're in a carpark. Harry. You really are here aren't you and I'm free?"

Harry nodded pleased that Sirius was starting to become lucid. He was even more pleased when suddenly he had two thin arms wrapped around him as his godfather broke down into tears of joy.

They had to do all the introductions again before Sirius stated getting a grasp on the names. Harry also explained that he had provided Petunia with a full series of potions to sort out his health issues and that he was under orders to take it easy, drink his potions and try to get some sun so he didn't look like a ghost anymore. Harry also promised that he would try and find a wand for him if he could before he joined then for the Easter holidays.

Both Harry and Sirius had tears in their eyes as the Dursleys drove off towards the airport whilst Harry flew back towards Hogwarts.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

**- There is no try -**

"So let me get this right. Without ever facing a dementor before, with only a fair idea where Azkaban was and no idea of what wards, or other defences it had, you set off with just a pair of borrowed brooms, James's old invisibility cloak, a few potions and an untested magical box that you believed should be able to trap dementors?"

Harry nodded with a small grin.

Sirius burst out laughing, "and I thought we were crazy when we were young."

Sirius was looking at lot better. Two weeks of sun, surf and a whole swag of healing potions had done wonders for him. Occasionally a haunted look would cross his face or he would wake whimpering fully believing that he was still in prison. But the episodes were already becoming less frequent. Aunt Petunia had turned out to be a good listener and after a week Sirius had suddenly started opening up about all his fears, she had sat with him holding his hand listening and being supportive. It had helped.

The biggest changes had happened over the week since Harry had joined them. Harry had arrived in a good mood and found everyone very happy to see him. The flight over had also been fun and he had been well treated by the flight crew. The airline did a good job of looking after unaccompanied minors though one of the flight crew seemed to want to treat him as if he was a baby.

Harry had held of the fully story of the rescue until Sirius had coughed up dozens of stories of his parents from their Hogwarts years and the complete story of Peter's betrayal, the quick version he had extracted from Sirius during the rescue attempt had only been enough to ensure he was doing the right thing. During the telling of his story he had glossed over the use of his force powers. To avoid outright lying about certain things he had told Sirius that there were a few things that needed to remain a secret for the time being. Sirius pestered him about that in good humour, but didn't get upset when Harry refused to budge on the matter.

Harry was also very pleased that Sirius mental barriers were strengthening as well. He had been concerned that he was going to have to be very careful with speaking with him. He was going to teach him a few muggle meditation techniques that he had found very useful when he was just getting starting developing his force powers, they were the same ones he had taught Neville and Hermione and, though they weren't magical, they did help strengthen one's mental barriers.

"And they're still not looking for me?" Sirius asked after calming down.

Harry shrugged, "It hasn't been in the news or anything. But neither has the disappearance of some of their dementors. I tried to keep my presence quiet and made sure none of the guard saw me coming. They would all have woke up safe and slightly confused in their own quarters. Maybe waking up with only a hazy memory of the previous night isn't that uncommon there."

Harry didn't mention that he had hit each with a power force suggestion that the nothing unusual had happened that night. Now realising that being around dementors lowered mental defences he wondered just how overpowered his force suggestions had been. Hopefully he hadn't damaged their minds in anyway.

Sirius gaze turned distant, "I remember inspections… though not how frequent. Very hard to keep track of time there, I think I was unconscious a lot of the time. It still is hard to believe it was ten years. Sometimes it feels shorter. Other times it feel longer. Oh hell. I'm rambling again.

"It's okay Sirius. I'm just glad you're out. Did you want to return to London for anything? Best to do it soon before news gets out."

Sirius shook his head, "There is nothing there for me there now. You're the only thing I would go back for and whilst you are at Hogwarts most of the time there really doesn't seem any point. I'm happy being a Koh Samurian as long as you keep visiting."

Harry rolled his eyes at Sirius latest pet word but he couldn't disagree, Koh Samui was a nice place and he doubted many english wizards would visit the beaches here.

"Harry." Sirius's tone had turned serious and he picked up a sealed letter from the nearby bookcase, "When you go back I want you to take this letter to Gringotts. You've been listed as my heir since shortly after I became your godfather but this will make sure that all my vaults are transferred to you now rather than waiting. It's also got instructions on what the goblins are to do if the ministry decides to declare me dead."

"What? Why you transferring them to me? I don't want all your money."

"Hey! It's not all for you boy." Sirius chuckled, the serious expression gone as quickly as it had appeared, "I'm relying on you to send a very good sized chunk of that money to me. It might be cheaper over here but if I want to live like a king I'm going to need more baht. There's also a list of things in there I want you to bring over next time you visit. The goblins will help you sort and package it, they're being well paid for the service so take advantage of it. You can leave the old wands in the vault though, still can't believe both of those two you brought work just as well as my original. Damn lucky. Anyhow, come on, let's go join Duds at the pool. The girls here are stunning and I don't like the idea of my godson being the only one without a girl at his side."

Harry sighed but didn't argue the point. He'd already explained that he wasn't looking for a relationship but Sirius thought it criminal that Dudley was hanging around with a tanned long legged daughter of an Australian scuba instructor whilst Harry spent most of his time lazying in the sun with boring text books. Even Sirius had made a few female friends as he often boasted.

The rest of holiday passed too quickly and there were lots of tears when Harry and the Dursley's waved farewell to a well disguised Sirius and Sandy, who was now officially Dudley's girlfriend. It looked like the whole family was going to be coming back for the summer holidays.

**- There is no try -**

The final term of the year moved along quickly and, whilst the emphasis of the teachers moved to the fifth and seventh year, Harry still managed to find the occasional moment to receive private tuition from both Professor Flitwick and Professor O'Berne. Neville and Hermione did finally manage to convince him to help with some of their study groups. Hermione was racking up a good amount of additional credit and Neville was progressing well towards his goal of being a teacher, something he had wanted to be since he was quite young.

Harry continued the study of mathematics, electronics and science that he had started during his holiday. He had gone a little crazy with a mail order catalog and now had over fifty new books to read. He finally judged himself ready to start on the project that he felt would mark the difference between being a Youngling and a Padawan. It wasn't a title he would ever admit to, not least because he didn't have a true master, but it felt it a good exercise to track his progress against the way of the Jedi.

His first attempt at using a combination of magic and science to create a plasma source had made him very thankful that O'Berne had begun teaching him shielding spells. That disaster had cost him nearly his entire stock of his mechanical and electronics components, a dozen books and one set of school robes. His second attempt, a few weeks later, only cost him the table, a dozen rune stones, but only those electronics and the mechanical components he was using for the test. He was learning and had kept everything else well clear of the testing area. It looked like he was going have a lot more trips to the muggle post office that he had all his muggle supplies delivered to in the future.

His third attempt, without any magic assistance, worked as per the design and learning from his mistakes he slowly replaced a few key components with magical equivalents until he had the source of plasma that would eventually form the base of his lightsabre. That it was currently not even close to being portable, let alone hand held, was something he would have to work on.

**- There is no try -**

Eventually the papers reported that Sirius Black had died during an attempted escape from Azkaban. That this news came a month and a half after the Quibbler had reported two weeks of an unusually high amount of Auror activity around Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley didn't seem like much of a coincidence.

Harry didn't think much of the limited selection of wizarding publications. The Daily Prophet was the worst type of tabloid and the Quibbler was mostly a tongue in cheek poke at the establishment written by some obviously intelligent individuals with a twisted sense of humour. It was a chore extracting any sort of objective news out of either. He had checked out the french alternatives, and though they were slightly less subjective, a dedicated reader could be forgiven for believing that the rest of the world didn't exist. His primary school german wasn't up to the task of even attempting to read a german paper and he had no time to put the effort into learning any other languages. Also speaking passable french already put him ahead of most of the british wizarding world.

A few days later Professor McGonagall hand delivered a letter from Gringotts containing an invitation to attend the reading of Sirius Black's will. In response to Harry's query as why the letter, addressed to him, hadn't come straight to him Professor McGonagall gave a very dry answer involving wards to protect him, though he could detect a significant amount of irritation and recent anger, though it was not directed at him. When he asked about the details of the wards she promised that she would see to it before leaving with a very determined expression set on her face. Harry was certain that she was off to see Dumbledore.

The will reading was an amusing experience. At least for some of the participants. The ministry had delayed the announcement of Sirius's death till a full month after it had been declared. The Gringotts legal goblin that Sirius and Harry had hired under a heft retainer explained what had happened in layman's terms. The Malfoy's had, in the intervening month, spent a great deal of money trying to invalidate the will that somehow they had managed to get the day Sirius was declared dead. Unfortunately due to it having being written well before Sirius was convicted and the only beneficiary being related and both his legally and magically heir ruled out any grounds for a challenge. They tried to argue that it was impossible for anyone else to be his magical heir as Sirius didn't actually officially become lord till he was already in Azkaban, and hence he couldn't have undertaken the ritual. Unfortunately, for the Malfoy's, that it was impossible did not matter. The ritual had actually occurred shortly after Harry first arrived in Koh Samui and had turned out to be a very simple process involving the giving of a few drops of blood, a few words and the Sirius's lordship ring.

The will was also open ended enough so that everything that Sirius had inherited when his mother and grandfather has passed away also followed the same line of inheritance and Harry got everything. The most amusing thing to Harry was that it was all a sham. The goblins knew that Sirius was still alive, but they were being paid extremely well to act the part and, as Sirius was effectively gifting everything to Harry, there were no laws being broken. The goblins were very careful to only tell the truth and let everyone else make incorrect assumptions.

There was an attempt by the Malfoys to attend the reading, presumably so they could make another appeal or disrupt it, the ministry sent a representative and finally Dumbledore also turned up trying to use his influence to sit in on it. The goblins refused them all and Harry ended up listening to the fake will reading alone much to his and the goblin's amusement. After thanking the goblins Harry instructed the goblins to enact the transfer instructions that Sirius had provided and a large amount of money was moved to various international banks. Sirius had planned to leave the majority of the money to Harry but Harry knew Sirius was going to be very surprised as he had only been expecting to have access to the money from his personal accounts. There was a lot more than that in the family Black accounts and a property as well. So Harry padded out the transfers significantly.

Learning that he was the new owner of 12 Grimmauld Place, a location that had featured frequently in Sirius's stories, was amusing. He would have liked to visit it but knew that since Sirius was still actually alive he would have to be added to the wards first. It would have to wait.

Before returning to school Harry he visited all the vaults that he could access. Some were warded in a way similar to Grimmauld Place and he had didn't see the need to attempt to break through, especially in the presence of the goblins. He wasn't even sure his method would work on a physical barrier. Inside Sirius's personal vault he discovered a collection of magical crystals that got Harry to thinking about using crystals instead of rune stones to create the plasma containment ward he had been working on. He would ask Sirius if he could experiment with them during the summer break.

As the school year came to an end, Harry discovered to his amazement that he now had quite a few friends. Thanks mostly to Neville's efforts both Harry and Hermione were now part of a much large social circle that included most of the first years and even a few older students. Harry was surprised when he discovered that he really liked having friends.

**- There is no try -**

"Aunt Petunia this are my friends Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger"

Aunt Petunia smiled down at the two smiling youngsters, "So, you are the two that have been giving my Harry a run for top place in your year? It's a pleasure to meet you both."

Neville laughed, "Hello Mrs Dursley. Well its Harry and Hermione that are fighting for the top place I'm just happy to be not far behind these two in all my classes."

Hermione, "Not so in herbology, Neville has first place well and truly tied up there. It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs Dursley."

"Petunia or Aunt Petunia is fine. No problems with the Ravenclaws then? I believe I heard they were meant to be the house that usually dominated the rankings."

Harry shrugged, "We tend to get along with them all pretty well now."

Neville laughed and elbowed Harry, "Listen to him. If it wasn't for Harry half of them wouldn't have got anywhere near the mark that they did. It took a bit of effort but we finally convinced Harry to help with our weekly study sessions. Hermione and I run them but it's Harry that comes up with the exercises that keep the Ravenclaws coming back."

"Ignore him. Neville and Hermione run very good study sessions all by themselves. I just help with a few ideas." a smiling Harry said.

"Well that all sounds wonderful. It's good to see you all working together. Now, I've already given permission to Harry to visit during the summer holiday, have you both heard from your parents?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes Aunt Petunia. My parents are quite happy for me to go camping with you for the last week of July and I'll stay for Harry's Birthday and travel with him to Neville's."

Neville was also nodding, 'My gran had already said she is happy for me to come camping as well and she has also extended the invite to include you and the rest of your family to my Birthday. Oh, there is my Gran. Please come over and I'll introduce you."

**- There is no try -**

* * *

_**Author Note**: And that's the end of first year, I've had fun writing it and I'm happy that it's entertained so many people. I'm loving all the feedback and reviews. There have been plenty of great ideas sent my way and I've already added a few during my editing and proofreading stages. I'm looking forward to reading and use more. I love constructive criticism, and whilst I write mostly for my own enjoyment I still try to take advantage of opportunities to improve my writing._

_I've already made a start on second year and have some major plot ideas down but it'll be quite awhile before I start posting it so there is still time to make an impact on the story. I also have some other stories that need some attention._

_Thanks for reading._


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